A mobile game that simulates Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and invites users to "drop bombs and avoid killing civilians" has been pulled from Google's app store, a company spokesman said after a public backlash.

Bomb Gaza, developed by PlayFTW and still available as an app on Facebook, simulates the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas. Players drop bombs from a fighter jet while dodging missiles from Hamas fighters in black and green masks.

"We remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies," a spokesman for Google said, confirming that the game had been removed from the app store. Google did not specify which policy the game had violated. It has rules that prohibit content that amounts to hate speech, bullying and violence and lets users flag abusive content.