Joan Rivers slams Selena Gomez for ‘Pray for Gaza’ post

January 25, 2010. Comedian Joan Rivers arrives for the premiere of the documentary "Joan Rivers - A Piece Of Work" during the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (Reuters)

A passionate Joan Rivers joined the fray on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza, taking the opportunity to slam Selena Gomez for writing "Pray for Gaza” on Instagram last week.

“Oh, Selena Gomez, yeah, that college grad,” Rivers sneered when asked about Gomez’ social media message. “Well if Selena said that… let’s see if she can spell Palestinian.”

When questioned by a TMZ paparazzo, Rivers was adamant about her support for Israel in the ongoing conflict and compared the situation to a hypothetical conflict between New Jersey and New York.

“Let me just tell you, if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe them out,” she said with her voice raised. “If we heard they were digging tunnels from New Jersey to New York, we would get rid of Jersey…. [To] the Palestinians [militants], you cannot throw rockets and expect people not to defend themselves!”

The cameraman then asked her about the casualties of the citizens in Gaza.

The Palestinian death toll reached 817, after 115 were killed Thursday, in one of the deadliest days of fighting, said Ashraf al-Kidra, a Palestinian health official. More than 5,000 Palestinians have been wounded since July 8, he said.

During the same period, 34 Israelis, among them 32 soldiers, and a Thai worker were killed.

Rivers was ready with a reply, telling TMZ it was the fault of the Hamas for storing their weapons near civilians.

“Don’t you dare put weapon stashes in private homes,” she said.

Rivers added that the current clashes in Gaza are happening because Hamas had previously been firing rockets at Israel.

“They started it! … for months this has been going on,” she said of the rocket fire.

She then alluded to her personal experience in Israel, saying, “I know cause I’ve been over there, and I wish the world would know.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met twice Friday in Cairo with United Nation chief Ban Ki-Moon and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri to negotiate an agreement for at least a week-long halt of the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the nearly three-week war.

Rivers slammed some media outlets for their coverage of the conflict.

“BBC should be ashamed of themselves and CNN should be ashamed of themselves and everybody stop it already!”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.