'Bomb Gaza' mobile game yanked from Google Play store

A mobile game called Bomb Gaza, which allegorizes the crisis currently taking place there, has been removed from the Google Play store for unspecified violations of its policies.

A Google representative confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that Google pulled the app following complaints; this one on Twitter called a good deal of attention to Bomb Gaza, in which players are told to drop bombs on enemies without killing civilians.

In the screenshot tweeted out, an Israeli warplane flies overhead, apparently targeting caricatured militants presented entirely in black. Civilians wear white. A "rage meter" appears to measure the number of civilian deaths the player causes. The game was developed by PLAYFTW and launched July 29, three weeks after the conflict began.

Google Play, generally more permissible in allowing apps to its catalog than Apple is to the iOS App Store, has policies that prohibit hate speech.

Still, other apps based on the conflict are on Google Play currently, including Gaza Defender (released Aug. 2), which appears to represent the conflict from the Palestinian side, and Iron Dome (launched July 30), a Missile Command-type game named for Israel's air-defense batteries.