Mr Sheikh has now apologised for “any offence caused” in a statement issued by the BBC, indicating the broadcaster intends to keep him post.

He said: “If my messages have caused people to think I am supporting the attacks of Oct 7, then that would not sit well with me, and I apologise for any offence this has caused. I would never seek to support any loss of innocent lives. That was not my intention.

“I welcome the opportunity to clearly state my views. I have been clear from the outset that the killing of innocent lives is wrong. There is no way I would support what happened on Oct 7 as acceptable, it was morally reprehensible. 

“As is the ongoing situation in Gaza where many innocent lives continue to be lost – many of which are women and children. I will continue to call for a stop on the killing of innocent civilians, my message is clear for a ceasefire and a stop to all conflict.”

Mr Sheikh, 39, shared the post in January among a series of others which criticised Israel’s retaliatory action following Hamas’s Oct 7 attacks.

He also accused Israel of lying about the al-Ahli hospital rocket attack, in which hundreds of people died on Oct 17. Israel has denied responsibility for the strike and blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

One of his posts read: “Many innocent Palestinians have just lost their lives in a hospital bombing. To make it even worse the oppressor Israel has tried to blame someone else for the bombing.”

Israel demands BBC ‘upholds standards’

In the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, Mr Sheikh said: “The UK/US instantly stand with Israel today, although they have stayed quiet for years on the atrocities committed by Israel over Palestine. Claiming Palestine has no justification to attack, don’t they have a right to defend themselves.”

He also accused both Mr Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, of being “genocide enablers”.

Orly Goldschmidt, an Israeli embassy spokesman, said: “We condemn all anti-Semitic acts and remarks. We expect the BBC to uphold its stated editorial values and standards, and believe such standards should be applied wherever such ani-Semitic rhetoric occurs within the organisation.”

The messages emerged after Mr Sheikh, who was capped 27 times for Scotland, was hired by the BBC to provide commentary for the T20 World Cup which started over the weekend.

On Tuesday, Mr Sheikh will make his debut for England’s opening group stage match against Scotland in Bridgetown, Barbados.

In 2022, he spoke out about the “devastating” racism he suffered while playing for Scotland after an independent review that highlighted 448 examples of institutional racism and led to the resignation of the entire Cricket Scotland board.

The BBC introduced social media guidelines to improve impartiality in September following a review of its policies. The guidelines state that presenters of “flagship programmes” must not “criticise the character of individual politicians”.

The guidelines also require “respect and civility in public discourse”.They were introduced after a series of tweets by Gary Lineker, the presenter of Match of the Day, in which he was critical of the government.