LOS ANGELES — Pop superstar Rihanna caused a social media firestorm this week when she tweeted “#FreePalestine” from her official account before deleting it eight minutes later.

In those eight minutes the controversial tweet was retweeted more than 70,000 times, according to NY Magazine.

Entertainment news website TMZ claimed that the Barbadian singer removed the tweet after she was inundated with questions from fans asking if she supported Hamas.

A source close to the sexy songstress said that Rihanna had clicked a link in an article and the politically charged tweet was accidentally posted.

“She deleted it because it was never meant to be tweeted,” the source said.

Hours after her initial posting was removed, she tweeted “Let’s pray for peace and a swift end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! Is there any hope?….,” with a picture of an Israeli child and Palestinian child holding hands.

This isn’t the first time the “Diamonds” singer has gotten into hot water regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In October 2013 she performed to a crowd of thousands in Tel Aviv. Following the show, Ha’aretz reported that Rihanna substituted the lyric “All I see is dollar signs” with the phrase “All I see is Palestine” in her hit single “Pour it Up,” and the controversy was quickly picked up by Israeli and Arab media, eventually making its way to American aggregators.

It turned out, however, that upon scrutiny of a fan video taken at the concert, Rihanna had in fact performed the original lyrics to the song.