The European Union (EU) on Tuesday issued what was widely taken as blistering criticism of Hamas – the Times of Israel described the statement as “taking a strikingly pro-Israel stance” while the left-leaning Ha’aretz settled for “dramatic” – with the bloc’s 28 foreign ministers demanding that the Palestinian terror group “immediately put an end to [rocket attacks on Israel] and.. renounce violence,” and also calling for all terror groups in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to be disarmed:

The EU strongly condemns the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas and militant groups in the Gaza Strip, directly harming civilians. These are criminal and unjustifiable acts. The EU calls on Hamas to immediately put an end to these acts and to renounce violence. All terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm. The EU strongly condemns calls on the civilian population of Gaza to provide themselves as human shields.

Rocket attacks on Israeli population centers Tuesday managed to get within a few kilometers of Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, after which the Federal Aviation Administration issued an order prohibiting American airlines from flying into or out of the airport for 24 hours.

Europe’s Air Safety Agency (EASA) issued a similar but more indefinite warning, which cascaded into Canada.

The dynamic seems set to end debate over the degree to which Hamas’s rocket arsenal constitutes a full-blown strategic threat to the Jewish state, after weeks in which some observers had sought to downplay the disruptions that rocket attacks were generating.

There had also been occasional public debate over the extent to which Hamas has in fact deliberately mobilized Gaza civilians as human shields.

Several videos on the issue – either documenting how Hamas’s leaders have done exactly that, or rebroadcasting news segments in which mainstream journalists dismantled anti-Israel spokespeople for brushing aside Hamas’s tactics – have gained traction on social media platforms.

[Photo: WORLD Breaking News / YouTube]