An Egyptian journalist who was due to receive a US medal of honour had her award postponed and was put under investigation by White House officials after she was accused of supporting terrorist activities.

Samira Ibrahim was due to receive the International Women of Courage Award on March 14 from Secretary of State John Kerry and First Lady Michelle Obama in recognition of her work exposing “virginity tests” conducted by the Egyptian army during the Tahrir Square protests last year.

However, Samuel Tadros, a researcher at Hudson Institute’s Centre for Religious Freedom, publicised tweets by Ms Ibrahim in which she quoted Hitler and backed terror attacks against the US and Israel.

In one tweet, Ms Ibrahim wrote: “An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport… Today is a very sweet day.” In another, she said, quoting Hitler: “I have discovered with the passage of days, that no act contrary to morality, no crime against society, takes place, except with the Jews having a hand in it.”

Initially, Ms Ibrahim claimed her Twitter page has been “hacked more than once and any tweet about racism or hatred was not mine”.

Later, she appeared to accept responsibility for the antisemitic statements, tweeting: “I refuse to apologise to the Zionist lobby in America regarding my previous anti-Zionist statements under pressure from American government therefore they withdrew the award.”