In an interview over the weekend, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a former Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer for the U.S. Navy SEALs, said that Israel had taken the proper precautions to protect people inside of Gaza prior to the nation’s ground battle against Hamas.
“Israel has a right to defend itself to the hilt. And that means the complete elimination of Hamas, the eradication of their terrorist infrastructure. Israel has put out warnings to civilians about where Israel’s going to conduct operations and has told civilians there to leave the area.” DeSantis said.
“Hamas is telling those civilians to stay in the area. So they’re using the civilians as human shields. So of course, when you’re in war, you want to avoid that, but if there are civilian casualties, that’s the fault of Hamas. That’s not going to be the fault of Israel.” he continued.
Brennan asserted that DeSantis favored “collective punishment” of Gaza residents in response to Hamas’s deeds.
“It’s not collective punishment. Hamas is the one that is creating this predicament. Hamas is the one who always uses civilian targets to conduct operations. And we dealt with this some in Iraq where Al Qaeda in Iraq would commandeer mosques.” DeSantis shot back.
“So under normal circumstances, of course, you don’t target a religious institution. But if you have terrorist groups that are converting that into a base of operations, then you absolutely treat that as military targets. But that’s because Hamas is making those decisions to convert that infrastructure into the use for terrorist purposes.” he concluded.
[READ MORE: Emergency Airlift Undertaken on Orders of Governor DeSantis Rescues 300 Americans From Israel]
