Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Sunday said that about half of the residents of Gaza during her tenure as US ambassador to the United Nations despised Hamas and wanted to be free from its “terrorist rule.”

Haley, 51, hearkened back to her time as UN ambassador from 2017 to 2018 when asked on CNN about former President Donald Trump’s controversial comments on the war in Israel, and about her other leading 2024 GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, forcefully coming out against the US accepting refugees from the Gaza Strip.

“You’ve got half of them at the time that I was there didn’t want to be under Hamas’s rule. They didn’t want to have terrorists overseeing them,” Haley told host Jake Tapper “State of the Union” on Sunday. “The other half supported Hamas and wanted to be a part of that.”

“There are so many of these people who want to be free from this terrorist rule,” she continued. “They want to be free from all of that. And America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists.”

DeSantis, 45, on Saturday said about refugees from Gaza: “not all of them are Hamas, but they are all anti-Semitic.” He argued that it should be up to neighboring Arab nations to absorb Palestinians fleeing the conflict.

Haley did not directly respond to his comments, but she did re-up her critique of Trump, 77, calling Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah – which the US designates a terrorist organization – “very smart” during a campaign speech in Florida last Wednesday.

Trump mused at the time that the “press doesn’t like when” he points to the intelligence of US foes like Chinese Leader Xi Jinping – while bashing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as being unprepared for Hamas’s surprise attack.

“[Netanyahu] has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened here. He was not prepared. He was not prepared and Israel was not prepared,” Trump said of Netanyahu, whom he previously fumed at for congratulating President Biden on his 2020 election victory.

Haley suggested that Trump’s comments were emblematic of why she is running for president.

“It’s why I continue to say it is time for a new generational leader,” Haley said.

“[Trump] congratulated the Chinese Communist Party not too long ago… You don’t go and compliment any of them,” she said. “That makes America look weak. It doesn’t make America look strong.”

“We’ve got to look forward. This is going to be tough days ahead for everyone involved. This is not the time to sit there and bash a leader,” she added.

Trump’s campaign has since defended his comments, arguing that he “was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack” and that “smart does not equal good.”

A cacophony of 2024 Republican hopefuls have lashed out at Trump over his comments on Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah is not very smart. Hezbollah is evil,” former Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News, calling Trump’s remarks “reckless.”

“Let’s make it clear he’s a fool. He’s a fool. Only a fool wouldn’t make those kinds of comments,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told CNN last week. “As a Republican Party, we cannot once again nominate a fool like this to be our nominee and get him anywhere near the presidency.”

“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,’” DeSantis posted on X in response. 

DeSantis’ campaign issued perhaps its strongest rebuke of Trump to date.

“No matter what rhetorical gymnastics act his campaign team tries to perform to attempt to once again cover for him, nobody can change the fact that last night Donald Trump showed his true colors,” communications director Andrew Romeo said.

“It is disturbing and disqualifying.”

The Biden administration also assailed Trump.

“It’s completely lost on us why any American would ever praise an Iran-backed terrorist organization as ‘smart’,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.

“This is a time for all of us to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel against ‘unadulterated evil.’ That’s what the president is doing as commander in chief.”

In a statement Sunday, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Haley “should stop taking Democrat talking points.”

Trump “brought peace to the Middle East with the Abraham Accords, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, and no new wars started under his watch,” Cheung told The Post.

Trump is the runaway frontrunner in the 2024 presidential field with 58.3% support followed by DeSantis at 12.9% and Haley at 7.6%, per the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.