Kylie Jenner posts support for Israel then deletes Instagram story after fan backlash amid brutal Palestine conflict

Kylie Jenner posted then deleted an Instagram Story showing her support for Israel on Saturday – after backlash from some of her fans.

The influencer, 26, took to her social media with image of Israel’s flag with the text, ‘Now and always, we stand with the people of Israel!’ 

The image she reshared was from nonprofit organization StandWithUs – a body which states that it supports Israel and opposes antisemitism. 

On Twitter a video that appeared to be of comments on Jenner’s post showed numerous users replying that they supported a free Palestine. 

Israel launched retaliatory strikes against Hamas after the militant group launched a series of attacks on Saturday, in the biggest escalation in the region in decades.

Changed her mind: Kylie Jenner posted then deleted an Instagram Story showing her support for Israel on Saturday

Opinion: The influencer, 26, took to her social media with image of Israel’s flag with the text, ‘Now and always, we stand with the people of Israel!’

According to Palestinian officials, Israeli air strikes have killed at least 313 people in the Gaza Strip, with almost 2,000 wounded.

In Israel, 300 civilians have also been killed, and dozens of Israelis have been taken hostage.

Under Kylie’s recent post – as she shared snaps from Paris Fashion Week – many have made their feelings clear by posting the flag of Palestine.

Other penned comments like: ‘Free Palestine’. 

Israel has launched a counterstrike against Hamas militants in the Gaza strip in the south, and is pounding Lebanon with artillery in the north, following an unprecedented sneak attack that has left at least 300 Israelis dead.

As the sun rose on Sunday following the deadliest day of violence in Israel in 50 years, the Jewish nation’s warplanes strafed densely populated Gaza City with bombs in retaliatory strikes.

Heavy smoke and flames were seen rising from Gaza’s Burc Vatan shopping mall, after the Palestine Tower in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, one of the tallest buildings in the strip, was reduced to rubble.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has released footage of a missile strike it claims took place on a compound belonging to Hamas’ head of military intelligence, adding it had also targeted two banks belonging to the terrorist organisation and aerial weapons production sites in Gaza.

Reaction: Under Kylie’s recent post – as she shared snaps from Paris Fashion Week – many have made their feelings clear by posting the flag of Palestine

Cause: The image she reshared was from nonprofit organization StandWithUs – a body which states that it supports Israel and opposes antisemitism

Horror: People assess the destruction cause by Israeli air strikes in Gaza City on Saturday. Israel has launched a counterstrike against Hamas militants after a sneak attack that killed hundreds

Drone footage, taken over the last 24 hours and released by the military branch, also shows a group of Hamas fighters being attacked from the sky as they try to cross into Israeli territory.

Meanwhile, in the north of the country IDF forces carried out artillery strikes against Lebanon in the disputed area of Mount Dov, following mortar fire directed towards Israel from its northern neighbour.

Iran-backed Hezbollah militants said it was behind the strikes and the attack was carried out ‘in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance’, reported the BBC.

Columns of heavy weaponry including tanks and armoured personnel carriers were also spotted moving north toward Israel’s border with Lebanon and Syria.

‘We are embarking on a long and difficult war that was forced on us by a murderous Hamas attack,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Sunday, adding that the ‘offensive phase’ of the IDF response has begun.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said more than 400 Palestinian militants had been killed in southern Israel and the Gaza strip, and dozens more captured.

‘As of this hour, there are forces fighting in [Kibbutz] Kfar Aza, there are searches in a large number of towns. There are IDF forces in all towns, there is no town that does not have an IDF force in it,’ he is quoted as saying in The Times of Israel.

Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom Tzipi Hotovely has blamed Iran for supporting Hamas ahead of Saturday’s attack.

She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: ‘Iran is backing up Hamas, Iran is destabilising the region with its proxies.

‘We are willing to take a long fighting time to defend our people, we must make sure no one has a motivation to do that again.’

More than 300 Israelis have been killed, and 1,590 injured, since Hamas launched its blitz attack on Saturday morning with rockets and up to 1,000 armed militants roving in gangs, attacking civilians and soldiers alike across dozens of locations.

At least 26 Israeli soldiers have been killed in an attack by the Hamas militant group on the country´s south, Israel’s military confirmed.

And at least 313 Palestinians have been killed, and nearly 2,000 injured, in retaliatory Israeli military action since yesterday, the country’s health ministry has said.

On Sunday morning, Israel was still fighting Hamas incursions in eight places, the Israeli military said.

‘Israel is waking up this morning to a terrible morning,’ said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman. ‘There are a lot of people killed… children, grandmothers, families, bodies.’

Hamas fighters began their attack at dawn on Saturday with a huge barrage of rockets into southern Israel, giving cover to an unprecedented, multi-pronged infiltration of fighters into Israel from Gaza.

Hamas fighters killed hundreds of Israelis in clashes through the day, and escaped back into Gaza with at least dozens of hostages, including women, children, and disabled elderly Israelis.

An Israeli military spokesperson said Sunday morning that two hostage situations had been ‘resolved,’ but did not say whether those hostages had been rescued alive.

Conflict: Hamas claimed to have fired 5,000 rockets into Israel from the occupied Gaza Strip, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

Scared: People standing on a rooftop watch as a ball of fire and smoke rises above a building in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike that hit the Palestine Tower building on Saturday

An official number of how many people have been kidnapped is currently not known, but the Israeli Embassy to the United States suggests a figure of 100 civilians and soldiers.

The military branch announced in a post to X, formerly Twitter, early on Sunday morning that it had ordered a missile strike on a compound belonging to Hamas’ head of intelligence, along with a video of a purported attack.

It said: ‘A short while ago, IAF fighter jets struck a compound belonging to the head of the intelligence department in the Hamas terrorist organization.

‘The IAF is currently continuing to strike terror targets in the Gaza Strip.’

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