Israel-Hamas conflict: Why did Justin Beiber delete his Instagram story?

The famous US singer Justin Bieber was criticised Wednesday for his social media post in which he used a picture of destroyed spaces of Gaza — due to relentless bombardment by the brutal zionist regime — and expressed his support for Israel, as the country has been reeling after suffering a surprise blow from Hamas last week. 

According to the latest reports, Gaza was facing a humanitarian catastrophe after the power plants ceased to function due to fuel depletion.

The innocent Palestinians were being subjected to the occupied Israeli forces' continued bombing in the Gaza Strip for a fifth day, martyring at least 1,100. The Israeli death toll surged to 1,200.

After facing criticism, Justin Bieber deleted his earlier post on Instagram in which he used the picture of Gaza while expressing his support for Israel. The picture showed a damaged building and an area severely affected by the zionists' attacks.

Later on, he re-shared his message without the image on his official account — having 293 million followers — Wednesday showing "PRAYING FOR ISRAEL".

"To vilianise [sic] all Palestinians or all Israeli people to me seems wrong," the 29-year-old singer wrote in an earlier post on his Instagram story.

"I’m not interested in choosing sides, but I am interested in standing with the families who have been brutally taken from us."

The story was also shared by Justin’s wife Hailey, who also shared a post by Alex Edelman taking into account the “millions of Israelis and Palestinians who are now squarely in harm’s way” due to the violence.

On Saturday, Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip rampaged through parts of southern Israel, in the deadliest Palestinian attack in Israel’s history.

The Gaza Strip has been hit by airstrikes since the imposition of a complete siege of the besieged territory with Israeli military fighter jets hitting more than 200 targets overnight in a neighbourhood of Gaza City that it said had been used by Hamas to launch its unprecedented wave of attacks.

Reign of darkness in Gaza

The main and the only power plant in Gaza shut down on Wednesday due to fuel shortage and Israel's complete embargo of the area following Hamas's attack on Israeli cities.

Gaza stated that the enclave will experience a humanitarian catastrophe as the power plant completely shuts down due to a fuel shortage.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant pledged to launch a ground offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas's surprise attack.

As a result of the complete blockade imposed by Israeli authorities on the besieged territory, the Gaza Strip is likely to plunge into darkness "within hours" due to a lack of fuel for a power plant.

Palestine has accused Israel of using white phosphorus bombs against civilians in the Karama neighbourhood of the Gaza Strip as Tel Aviv vowed to escalate its response to an attack by Hamas with a ground offensive.

“The Israeli occupation is using internationally banned white phosphorus bombs against the Palestinians in the Karama neighbourhood in northern Gaza,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on X, formerly Twitter on Tuesday.