Joan Rivers 'praying for peace' despite saying Palestinians deserved to die

Comedienne Joan Rivers is standing behind her comments to a paparazzo that Palestinians "deserved to be dead" but added she was taken out of context.

Rivers made the comments to a cameraman as she was coming out of Los Angeles airport on Wednesday after being asked about Israel's war on Gaza.

"All they want is peace. They want people to stop throwing rockets at them," the 81 year old said about Israel.

But the controversial comments came when the cameraman pointed out that Israel had killed nearly 2000 Palestinian civilians in retaliating against the rocket fire.

"When you declare war, you declare war," Rivers, who is Jewish, said.

"They started it. We now don't count who's dead. You're dead. You deserve to be dead. You started it. You started it. Don't you dare make me feel sad about that."

Rivers then compared the assault on Gaza to the US dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during WWII.

"You were told to get out, you don't get out, then you know you're an idiot, and at least the ones that were killed were the ones with very low IQs," Rivers said.

Known for speaking her mind, Rivers took to Facebook to "stand behind" her comments following a massive backlash.

"The media, as usual, has decided to only quote the most out of context and inflammatory non sequitur rather than giving an accurate account of what my intentions were behind the statement," Rivers wrote.

"What I said and stand behind is, war is hell and unfortunately civilians are victims of political conflicts," Rivers said, adding: "Along with every other sane person in this world, I am praying for peace."

On Friday afternoon, several rockets were fired from Gaza today when a 72-hour ceasefire expired at 8am local time.

Before the ceasefire expired, Hamas warned it would not extend the truce unless the seven-year, Israel-imposed blockade of Gaza was lifted.

Hamas has also threatened to walk away from the peace negotiations, refusing to give up its weapons and demanding its Israeli prisoners be freed, a spokesman said.

The Palestinian Ministry for Health said Thursday that 1888 people, including 446 children, had been killed over the past month and 9804 people injured with the United Nations stating that 70 percent were militants.

The Israeli Defence Force has stated it killed 900 militants.

Israeli officials said 64 soldiers and three civilians have been killed in the current conflict.