diff --git a/manifest/provider/apply.go b/manifest/provider/apply.go
index 22451dc5ed..f372531fb5 100644
--- a/manifest/provider/apply.go
+++ b/manifest/provider/apply.go
@@ -540,16 +540,25 @@ func (s *RawProviderServer) ApplyResourceChange(ctx context.Context, req *tfprot
 
 		err = rs.Delete(ctxDeadline, rname, metav1.DeleteOptions{})
 		if err != nil {
-			rn := types.NamespacedName{Namespace: rnamespace, Name: rname}.String()
-			resp.Diagnostics = append(resp.Diagnostics,
-				&tfprotov5.Diagnostic{
-					Severity: tfprotov5.DiagnosticSeverityError,
-					Summary:  fmt.Sprintf("Error deleting resource %s: %s", rn, err),
-					Detail:   err.Error(),
-				})
-			return resp, nil
-		}
+			if apierrors.IsNotFound(err) {
+				s.logger.Trace("[ApplyResourceChange][Delete]", "Resource is already deleted")
 
+				resp.Diagnostics = append(resp.Diagnostics,
+					&tfprotov5.Diagnostic{
+						Severity: tfprotov5.DiagnosticSeverityWarning,
+						Summary:  fmt.Sprintf("Resource %q was already deleted", rname),
+						Detail:   fmt.Sprintf("The resource %q was not found in the Kubernetes API. This may be due to the resource being already deleted.", rname),
+					})
+			} else {
+				resp.Diagnostics = append(resp.Diagnostics,
+					&tfprotov5.Diagnostic{
+						Severity: tfprotov5.DiagnosticSeverityError,
+						Summary:  fmt.Sprintf("Error deleting resource %s: %s", rname, err),
+						Detail:   err.Error(),
+					})
+				return resp, nil
+			}
+		}
 		// wait for delete
 		for {
 			if time.Now().After(deadline) {
diff --git a/manifest/test/acceptance/delete_not_found_test.go b/manifest/test/acceptance/delete_not_found_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..90f242d097
--- /dev/null
+++ b/manifest/test/acceptance/delete_not_found_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+// Copyright (c) HashiCorp, Inc.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
+
+//go:build acceptance
+// +build acceptance
+
+package acceptance
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/hashicorp/go-hclog"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-kubernetes/manifest/provider"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-kubernetes/manifest/test/helper/kubernetes"
+)
+
+func TestKubernetesManifest_DeletionNotFound(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+
+	reattachInfo, err := provider.ServeTest(ctx, hclog.Default(), t)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Failed to create provider instance: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	name := randName()
+	namespace := randName()
+
+	tf := tfhelper.RequireNewWorkingDir(ctx, t)
+	tf.SetReattachInfo(ctx, reattachInfo)
+
+	k8shelper.CreateNamespace(t, namespace)
+	t.Logf("Verifying if namespace %s exists", namespace)
+	k8shelper.AssertResourceExists(t, "v1", "namespaces", namespace)
+
+	defer func() {
+		tf.Destroy(ctx)
+		tf.Close()
+		k8shelper.DeleteResource(t, namespace, kubernetes.NewGroupVersionResource("v1", "namespaces"))
+		k8shelper.AssertResourceDoesNotExist(t, "v1", "namespaces", namespace)
+	}()
+
+	tfvars := TFVARS{
+		"namespace": namespace,
+		"name":      name,
+	}
+
+	// Load the Terraform config that will create the ConfigMap
+	tfconfig := loadTerraformConfig(t, "DeleteNotFoundTest/resource.tf", tfvars)
+	tf.SetConfig(ctx, tfconfig)
+
+	t.Log("Applying Terraform configuration to create ConfigMap")
+	if err := tf.Apply(ctx); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Terraform apply failed: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	state, err := tf.State(ctx)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("Failed to retrieve Terraform state: %v", err)
+	}
+	t.Logf("Terraform state: %v", state)
+
+	time.Sleep(2 * time.Second)
+
+	t.Logf("Checking if ConfigMap %s in namespace %s was created", name, namespace)
+	k8shelper.AssertNamespacedResourceExists(t, "v1", "configmaps", namespace, name)
+
+	// Simulating the deletion of the resource outside of Terraform
+	k8shelper.DeleteNamespacedResource(t, name, namespace, kubernetes.NewGroupVersionResource("v1", "configmaps"))
+
+	// Running tf destroy in order to check if we are handling "404 Not Found" gracefully
+	tf.Destroy(ctx)
+
+	// Ensuring that the ConfigMap no longer exists
+	k8shelper.AssertNamespacedResourceDoesNotExist(t, "v1", "configmaps", namespace, name)
+}
diff --git a/manifest/test/acceptance/testdata/DeleteNotFoundTest/resource.tf b/manifest/test/acceptance/testdata/DeleteNotFoundTest/resource.tf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..76316832dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/manifest/test/acceptance/testdata/DeleteNotFoundTest/resource.tf
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+resource "kubernetes_manifest" "test" {
+  manifest = {
+    "apiVersion" = "v1"
+    "kind"       = "ConfigMap"
+    "metadata" = {
+      "name"      = var.name
+      "namespace" = var.namespace
+    }
+    "data" = {
+      "foo" = "bar"
+    }
+  }
+}
+
diff --git a/manifest/test/acceptance/testdata/DeleteNotFoundTest/variables.tf b/manifest/test/acceptance/testdata/DeleteNotFoundTest/variables.tf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f526a6a4bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/manifest/test/acceptance/testdata/DeleteNotFoundTest/variables.tf
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Copyright (c) HashiCorp, Inc.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-2.0
+
+# These variable declarations are only used for interactive testing.
+# The test code will template in different variable declarations with a default value when running the test.
+#
+# To set values for interactive runs, create a var-file and set values in it. 
+# If the name of the var-file ends in '.auto.tfvars' (e.g. myvalues.auto.tfvars) 
+# it will be automatically picked up and used by Terraform.
+#
+# DO NOT check in any files named *.auto.tfvars when making changes to tests.
+
+variable "name" {
+  type = string
+}
+
+variable "namespace" {
+  type = string
+}
\ No newline at end of file