The Israeli government has accused the Guardian of “cheap moralising” and distorting the facts after it published an article accusing the IDF of killing Gaza protesters without justification.

In an editorial published in Tuesday’s edition of the newspaper, it was suggested that during last year’s demonstrations on the Gaza border, Israeli troops had acted to “kill with impunity” in a policy that targeted protesters who were “unarmed and posed no danger to anyone”.

But in an angry response to the editorial, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said on Wednesday: “The Guardian has decided to engage in an exercise of cheap moralizing, deliberately ignoring Palestinian terror and violence.

“The Guardian knows very well that the Gaza Strip has been transformed by Hamas into a launch pad of rockets and violent attacks, endangering Israeli civilians on a daily basis, but prefers to ignore this reality, which would deprive it of the perverse pleasure of attacking Israel.”

Mr Nahshon, who was speaking to the Times of Israel, then added:  “One can only assume that left-wing antisemites in the UK will be very happy with this editorial.”

The Guardian accused Israel of “blatant disregard for Gazan lives”, arguing that there exists a “lack of accountability” that will eventually have negative implications for Israel itself.

It asked: “If one can kill with impunity, then can one lie without consequence?”

Since late March 2018, Palestinians in Gaza have taken part in Friday protests, throwing rocks and firebombs at Israeli security forces from close to the border fence.

The so-called “March of Return” protests at the Gaza border had initially been organised by grassroots campaigners but were quickly taken over by the Hamas terror group.

The Guardian editorial appeared to accept the Palestinian leadership’s call for five million descendants of the original refugees to be allowed to return to their “ancestral homes”, effectively spelling the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

A new report by the anti-occupation Israeli NGO B’Tselem said Israeli forces had killed 190 Palestinian participants in the protests, most of whom “were unarmed and posed no danger to anyone”.

Israeli security officials have repeatedly called on Palestinians in Gaza to stay away from the border fence.

Hamas has acknowledged that dozens of the fatalities were its members, including 50 of 62 fatalities in the initial protests following the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem last May.