Florida Governor Ron DeSantis clashed with a voter while on the campaign trail in Littleton, New Hampshire, on Thursday, in a heated exchange over the Israel-Hamas war.
A local man, identified by The New York Times as local Arab-American ski shop owner Ron Lahout, confronted Mr DeSantis about unverified claims babies are being beheaded in Gaza.
Mr Lahout began by asking Mr DeSantis what he thought “about the annihilation and the decapitation of all the Palestinians in Gaza right now”.
“They are not decapitating babies’ heads,” Mr DeSantis can be heard saying of Israeli forces. “They are not intentionally doing that.”
It comes after unverified reports emerged of Palestinian militants decapitating babies during the attack by Hamas on Israel on Saturday.
“They are blowing up entire residential buildings,” Mr Lahout then said of the Israeli bombings in Gaza.
The confrontation continued with Mr DeSantis arguing that the Israelis warned civilians in Gaza to leave before the shellings and that Hamas has told them to stay because “Hamas wants them to be human shields.”
“How many other armed forces give warnings to get out?” Mr DeSantis then asked.
Mr Lahout, who said he worked in Gaza refugee camps in the 1980s, countered that he didn’t “condone the killing of any innocent civilians.”
“And I don’t condone what Hamas did in the kibbutzes,” he continued. “But Israel is doing the exact same thing with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a radical, right-wing, crazy person. And I see hundreds of Palestinian families that are dead, and they have nowhere to go because they can’t leave Gaza because no one’s opening their borders.”
The Florida governor then asks: “Why aren’t these Arab countries willing to absorb some of the Palestinian Arabs?” before Mr Lahout walks out saying, “You had my vote, but you don’t now.”
The exchange occurred after Mr DeSantis criticized Palestinians in Gaza for aligning with Hamas, according to The New York Times.
Mr DeSantis is among several candidates running against former President Donald Trump to be the Republican 2024 presidential candidate. Mr Trump is currently the GOP front-runner, with a 42-point lead over Mr DeSantis, despite facing four criminal indictments.
In his latest campaign move, Mr DeSantis attacked the ex-president for his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and praise of Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Mr Trump called the group ”very smart” at a rally Wednesday night while also lashing out at Prime Minister Netanyahu, who he said he had a “bad experience” working with.
“Terrorists have murdered at least 1,200 Israelis and 22 Americans and are holding more hostage,” Mr DeSantis wrote on social media, “so it is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for President, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as ‘very smart.’”
Hamas stormed into Israel early on Saturday morning, killing hundreds of people and taking dozens of captives across the Gaza border in a devastating terror attack that caught the country’s security forces by surprise. At least 27 Americans are among the dead, the White House confirmed.
Meanwhile, more than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes by Israeli forces since Mr Netanyahu declared a state of war on Saturday and promised “mighty vengeance”.
On Friday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) ordered all Gaza civilians to leave the area and head south — a command the United Nations said is “impossible” to carry out.
