Staking out hardline positions on the Israel-Hamas war, most GOP presidential candidates have blamed President Joe Biden for the chaos and violence, called for Israel to “eradicate” Hamas and, in at least two cases, called for the U.S. to send troops into Gaza to rescue American hostages.

“We need to rescue the American hostages and get them out and back home, period. We need to bring those Americans home this very instant,” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said in a speech on Tuesday. “We should use, if necessary, our special operation forces if that's what it takes.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence also called for U.S. special forces to “be prepared to mobilize” with the Israeli military to rescue American hostages.

“Hamas gives ‘em up, or we go get ‘em,” he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Around 20 Americans have been taken hostage by Hamas, according to the White House. So far, 22 Americans can be counted among the dead in the conflict, the State Department said on Wednesday. Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have been killed in five days of fighting and thousands more have been wounded.

In his remarks to a conservative think tank, the Washington-based Hudson Institute, Scott called for Hamas “to be wiped from the face of the Earth,” a notion shared by his fellow Republican presidential hopefuls and Israeli leadership. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who maintains a distant second behind former President Donald Trump in national and Iowa primary polls, told a morning drive show host in New Hampshire on Tuesday that Israel should “eradicate Hamas, their networks, their infrastructure. No wishy washy-ness, no on one hand or the other,” and that the U.S. should support those efforts. 

“We have to treat sick people the way they deserve to be treated and eliminate them,” said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s U.N. ambassador, on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday. “I think their number one priority should be to eliminate Hamas. They have dealt with this literally for years where they’re constantly trying to kill Israelis. They need to eliminate them.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “eliminate” Hamas and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, where the terrorist organization rules and over two million Palestinians live, 40% of whom are under the age of 14, according to the CIA. Gallant said Israel, which blockades Gaza and controls much of its access to outside resources, would not allow electricity, food, water or fuel into the territory.

The 2024 GOP primary’s frontrunner, Trump, barely mentioned the war in a speech on Monday in New Hampshire, dedicating less than ten minutes of 90-minute remarks to the topic. After mentioning it briefly early on, about an hour into the speech he addressed the war in greater length, falsely claiming Hamas was sending terrorists across the U.S. southern border and arguing the bloodshed would have been avoided if he was still president. He also scolded American Jews for not supporting him, framing himself as a better partner to Israel than Democrats.

“The attack on Israel would never ever have happened. The attack on Ukraine would never have happened. Inflation would never have happened. None of it would have happened,” he said. In the days since his speech, he has posted frequently to social media boasting of his administrations’ policies in the Middle East and slamming Biden for a prisoner swap deal with Iran that unfroze $6 billion of the country’s oil assets. While the money remains in a Qatari bank account and monitored by the U.S. Treasury Department, Republicans and other critics have argued money is fungible and freeing up those billions allowed Iran to use other funds to support Hamas, who they have long backed financially.

Trump and his trailing primary rivals have uniformly blamed Biden for the unfolding violence, zeroing in on the Iran dollars.

Scott said “Biden has blood on his hands” and “his weakness invited the attack,” dubbing Iran, Russia and China a “new axis of evil.” In remarks he is scheduled to give at the Hudson Institute on Wednesday afternoon, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will say Iran’s “war on Israel” is “war on America” as he accuses Biden of “appeasement.” DeSantis said Biden has “responsibility” for the terrorist attack that triggered the war.

“They knew what they were doing. They had a delusional belief that somehow you can have a rapprochement with the Mullahs in Iran,” DeSantis told Drew Cline, the New Hampshire radio show host. “So yes, they do bear responsibility. And then just his response to this overall, this is a guy that's missing in action. He's not out there leading.”

No evidence of Iran’s involvement in the planning of the attack has been made public. U.S. officials have said they do not have any intelligence indicating direct involvement and the Israeli military has said they have not yet seen anything to suggest such cooperation beyond Iran’s historic support for Hamas. Iran has denied prior knowledge of Hamas’ plans.

One prominent candidate stood out from the pack: entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has reached third place in some early state polls. Ramaswamy has put forward the most isolationist foreign policy vision of his primary peers. Ramaswamy specifically criticized Haley, calling her response “irresponsible” that did not offer “a pragmatic path forward.” Hamas’ attack was not an “attack on America,” he argued.

“The U.S. should provide Israel with diplomatic support, intelligence-sharing, and necessary munitions to defend its own homeland, while taking special care to avoid a broader regional war in the Middle East that would *not* advance U.S. interests,” Ramaswamy said in a statement.

In Iowa over the weekend, Pence condemned Ramaswamy, DeSantis and his former boss in Trump for departing from “traditional conservative values” by embracing a more isolationist foreign policy and wavering or outright declaring opposition to supporting Ukraine’s effort to repel the Russian invasion.

"Voices of appeasement like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis I believe have run contrary to the tradition in our party that America is the leader of the free world," Pence told reporters, according to the Des Moines Register. "And if I’m president of the United States we’re going to send a strong and unambiguous message that America will be leading with strength once again on the world stage."

Ramaswamy responded by calling Pence and Haley’s remarks “histrionics” that were “unhelpful & unserious.”

For his part, President Joe Biden has not acknowledged his potential 2024 opponents’ criticisms in public appearances and statements over the last few days. He’s spoken on the phone with Netanyahu four times as of Wednesday.

“Let there be no doubt: The United States has Israel’s back,” Biden said on Tuesday. “We will make sure the Jewish and democratic State of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have.  It’s as simple as that.”