By Sarah Marsh, Matthias Williams and Thomas Escritt TURKU, Finland/BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered his most severe rebuke of Israel to date on Tuesday, criticising massive air strikes on Gaza as no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas and "no longer comprehensible".

The idyllic shot of a row of beach huts restored after the Hamas raids attests to the arch-conservative being a passionate supporter of Israel, in keeping with Germany's long-time solidarity in atonement for the Nazi-era Holocaust.

For decades, Germany has stood squarely in Israel’s corner, its dark history of Jewish persecution shaping its modern-day policy of virtually unquestioned backing.