The Israeli embassy in Dublin said there was no intention to cause insult or offence to anyone over controversial images that appeared on its official Twitter feed, including one of the statue of Molly Malone wearing a Muslim headscarf, last Friday.

The four photos featured well-known statues and artwork associated with different European countries. Weaponry and traditional Muslim headscarves were superimposed on the images. The pictures were posted last Friday but were removed after an online backlash.

In a statement on its Israel in Ireland Facebook page this evening, the embassy said it had “thus far refrained from commenting in the Irish media on the subject but we would now like to share with you the following information.”

“One of the administrators of the embassy’s social media accounts posted the images, which originated from a media site. When the account administrator received a request from one of our followers to take down the images, the request was complied with immediately. There was no intention to cause insult or offense to anyone,” the statement said.

In a photo entitled “Israel now Dublin next”, Dublin’s famous Molly Malone statue was covered in a traditional Muslim niquab, a long black headscarf.A picture addressed to Paris featured the Mona Lisa covered in a hijab and holding a large rocket. In an image called “Israel now Italy next”, Michaelangelo’s David wore a skirt fashioned out of explosives.

The fourth photo depicted Denmark’s statue of the Little Mermaid holding an enormous gun with the words “Israel now Denmark next”.

All four photos contained the caption “Israel is the last frontier of the free world”.

The pictures instantly rankled some Twitter users. One of them said: “This bigotry and racism against Arabs and Muslims from a verified diplomatic account is reprehensible.” The pictures were removed over the weekend.

The photos are part of the embassy’s controversial social media campaign that includes last week’s Tweet of a Palestinian flag superimposed with a picture of Adolf Hitler and the words “Free Palestine now!”

The embassy refused to comment when asked about the photographs yesterday saying: “ In view of the Irish Times’ extremely biased, partisan coverage of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, inciting hatred of the Jewish State, the embassy will not comment.”