Israel-Hamas war: DeSantis claims he saved Americans stuck in conflict, when Biden 'left them stranded'
Ron DeSantis
US Presidential race contender Ron DeSantis has claimed credit for saving lives andlimiting the number of hostagesmilitant group Hamas kidnapped during its October 7 attack.
Speaking during the Republican presidential debate, the Florida Governor said that there would've been more hostages if he hadn't stepped in to arrange evacuation for 700 people.
'We acted, and we saved lives'
DeSantis claimed that after the initial Hamas attack, there would have been a higher number of hostages. He said that Florida citizens were also under attack and US President Joe Biden "left them stranded".
"We had Floridians that were over there after the attack. [Biden] left them stranded. They couldn’t get flights out. I scrambled resources in Florida. I sent planes over to Israel, and I brought back over 700 people to safety. There could've been more hostages had we not acted," said DeSantis.
"We acted, and we saved lives," he added.
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As per The Times of Israel, Hamas militants did not kidnap anyone after the initial October 7 attack. So it is unclear why DeSantis said that the charter flights he helped organise"prevented additional hostages from being taken into Gaza".
Did the Biden administration abandon citizens?
The Biden administration arranged a number of charter flights out of Israel for its citizens. These flights started on October 13, chartering Americans from Tel Aviv to Athens.
With demands for flights falling sharply, its last planned charter flight, as per a Reuters report, was on Tuesday (Oct 31).
"It is purely a demand issue... We have consistently seen the demand for our charter flights go down," said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller during a press briefing on Monday (Oct 30).
Miller also said that the nation will continue to assess the situation and if "circumstances change on the ground" they will see if they "need to make additional arrangements."
(With inputs from agencies)
