Rihanna Provokes Controversy with #FreePalestine Tweet

She is one of the most influential people on the planet but Rihanna lost some fans when she decided to weigh in on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The pop star, who rarely speaks out on political and social issues, provoked controversy after she allegedly tweeted a message calling for an end to the Israel-Gaza clashes.

Her post, which simply read '#freepalestine', was retweeted almost 7,000 times in eight minutes before it was swiftly deleted from her feed.

According to TMZ, she had been reading about the ongoing Middle East conflict, which flared up following the murders of three Israeli teenagers, when she inadvertently clicked on a link which sent out a pro-Palestine message.

She had not intended to send the tweet and removed it after she was inundated with messages from fans questioning her support of Hamas.

"She deleted it because it was never meant to be tweeted. She didn't even realize it was a tweet until she started hearing from her fans," an insider said.

The Diamond hitmaker later replaced the message with a less inflammatory tweet which said: "Let's pray for peace and a swift end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! Is there any hope?"

The Israel-Gaza crisis continues to claim lives after international efforts towards a ceasefire collapsed.

"I appreciate key actors like the Egyptian president Sisi, and the Qatari Emir and many other leaders including the US who have been trying really hard to facilitate a ceasefire," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

"And I was encouraged when the Israeli government has agreed to this ceasefire proposal brokered by the Egyptian president."