EU---Israel caused abominable destruction--Hamas is terrorist

Speaking of the Israeli bombardment, he criticised the destruction of factories and other economic infrastructure: "What I saw was abominable. It was unjustified," Michel said.
He called on Israel to open its crossing points with the Gaza Strip "massively", to let in not only food and medicines but materials required for reconstruction.

Hamas is officially classed a terrorist group by the EU and other Western powers, his comments were especially pointed, days after an Israeli offensive that killed some 1,300 Palestinians.

"Hamas has an enormous responsibility for what happened here in Gaza," said Michel, the humanitarian aid commissioner, as he stood in a U.N. aid compound damaged by Israeli shelling.

He echoed Israeli criticisms that Hamas used civilians as "human shields" by fighting in populated areas and, describing Hamas rocket fire on Israel as a "provocation", he said in English: "Hamas is acting in the way of a terrorist movement."

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. A Hamas official, Mushir al-Masri, criticised Michel.

"It was shocking to see a European official giving cover to massacres and terrorism committed by the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people," he said.

"Palestinian resistance is as legitimate as the resistance of European countries that fought against foreign occupiers."

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