The corporation has ordered its Arabic channel to stop using Ahmed Alagha, who was a regular contributor to its coverage of the Israeli war against Hamas. The ban came after The Telegraph revealed in April that Alagha had been accused of describing Israelis as sadistic and less than human.

He appeared twice on BBC Arabic after this newspaper exposed his social media comments, once just a few hours after The Telegraph’s story had been published, and again on May 12. When Alagha’s continued appearances were brought to the BBC’s attention, corporation sources stated he would no longer be used on its programmes, ordering its Arabic channel to keep him off air. It comes after continued controversy over the output of BBC Arabic, which critics have described as biased against Israel, with claims that several of its contributors have repeatedly made anti-Semitic comments.

In May, the BBC’s chairman, Dr Samir Shah, announced the broadcaster will appoint an independent figure to investigate its Arabic channel as part of a review of the standard of its reporting of the Middle East conflict.

Alagha, who was billed on air as a Palestinian journalist, has appeared on BBC Arabic reporting from Gaza numerous times since January last year. He has appeared to have singled out Jews for condemnation and praised the killing of Israeli civilians on his social media accounts.