The Guardian has imposed new rules to ban staff from signing open letters or petitions amid allegations of bias and anti-semitism over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Guidelines for employees have been updated in order to ensure that journalists do not take any actions which could impact the publication's ability to report the news in a "fair and fact-based way".

Editor Kath Viner wrote in an email to staff: "We know that a number of staff globally have signed open letters and petitions relating to the conflict.

"Although this may be well-intentioned, unfortunately it can be perceived as a potential conflict of interest that could hamper our ability to report the news in a fair and fact-based way.

"It has resulted in unwarranted scrutiny of Guardian journalism and accusations that our journalists and our journalism may be biased."

The newspaper has faced criticism for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war from the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

In October board accused the newspaper of publishing an "unbelievably crass" opinion piece about Israel and the Holocaust.

The article caused fury after it warned against the "dangerous use of the Holocaust to justify Israeli mass violence against Palestinians".

In the same month, The Guardian sacked its longer-serving cartoonist Steve Bell over claims of antisemitism.