Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, has demanded the dismissal of a UN employee who tweeted a fake picture of a child dying in Gaza, purportedly killed by Israeli bombing.

Khulood Badawi, who works for the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, last week posted on her Twitter account a picture of a child who was killed in 2006 in an accident. The caption she posted said: “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by Israel. Another father carrying a child into a grave in Gaza."

The tweet became the most popular link posted about Gaza on the social networking site. Mr Prosor, the former Israeli ambassador to the UK, said information officer Ms Baawi was “directly engaged in spreading misinformation.”

Ms Baawi was previously disciplined by the UN in 2008 for leading a demonstration against Israel, calling Israeli politicians “war criminals” and accusing them of murdering children.

Mr Prosor has written two letters to Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, demanding Ms Baawi’s termination.

He called for “the immediate dismissal of Ms Badawi following her clear failure to uphold her responsibilities as a UN employee. I also expect OCHA to release a statement and make clear that it disassociates itself with her comments on Twitter as soon as possible.”

Mr Prosor said: “This OCHA employee’s rap sheet of incitement extends well beyond the incident this month. From the time that she was hired, OCHA has whitewashed Ms Badawi’s record of hate speech.”