SURFSIDE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference Tuesday morning in Surfside following Saturday’s attack in Israel.
The governor spoke at the Shul of Bal Harbour and was joined by Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and Israel Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky.
“Now is the time for leadership -- now is the time for the president to be out there -- to be talking about how important it is that we’re unified in the fight against terrorism,” DeSantis said.
The governor highlighted the Biden administration’s loosening of sanctions against Iran, and said that the U.S. government should not be supporting policies “that enrich the Iranian regime.”
“When Iran gets more money, they are not using it to make life better for the people of Iran,” DeSantis said. “What they use it for is to fund terrorism throughout the Middle East and throughout the world. They send the money to Hezbollah, they send the money to Hamas, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen. And yes, Iran was involved in orchestrating this attack against Israel. We know that, it’s been reported. They deny it, but we’re smarter than that.”
“We should use all available avenues to choke off money going to the Iranian regime,” the governor added.
Nuñez was among the Florida leaders who attended an interfaith Stand with Israel rally in Aventura Monday night.
“I’m here to tell you that Governor DeSantis and I unequivocally support and stand with the state of Israel, our one true ally, the most valued friend we have in the Middle East,” she said.
Israel bombarded downtown Gaza City on Tuesday and expanded a massive mobilization of reservists, vowing punishing retaliation against the Hamas militant group that increasingly left residents of the tiny Palestinian territory with nowhere to go.
Four days after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, bringing gunbattles to its streets for the first time in decades, Israel’s military said Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over its south and the border.
The war has already claimed at least 1,600 hundred lives on both sides — and perhaps many hundreds more. Israel has also said that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza are also holding more than 150 soldiers and civilians hostage.
The conflict is only expected to escalate from here. Israel expanded the mobilization of reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to the country’s media.