Tension between Florida Gov. Ron Desantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley broke into the open this week as the two 2024 Republican presidential candidates went at each other over the question of accepting refugees from Gaza fleeing the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The exchange marked the most heated argument between the two candidates yet, with DeSantis claiming Haley “flipped” from her original position about accepting Palestinian asylum-seekers and the Haley camp pointing to several media fact checks deeming DeSantis’ interpretation false.

The back-and-forth began Saturday when DeSantis proclaimed the US should not accept any refugees from the Gaza Strip — the Palestinian territory under the rule of the terror group Hamas — because they are all “antisemitic.”

DeSantis has since touted his quick response and has challenged his rivals to take the same position.

On Sunday, Haley clarified that Arab countries should be more willing to take in refugees — without saying anything about the US accepting more Palestinians.

She also responded to DeSantis’ remarks, telling CNN host Jake Tapper on “State of the Union”: “There are so many of these people who want to be free from this terrorist rule,” and that “America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists.”

DeSantis replied Sunday evening in an interview with NBC, claiming “Nikki Haley would import people” and that “she’s trying to be politically correct.”

“She’s trying to please the media and people on the left, I don’t care about that. I’m gonna speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may,” DeSantis added.

Haley has since rebuked DeSantis’ interpretation of her comments, reiterating she had never said she was willing to take in Gaza refugees to the US and telling Fox News on Tuesday that “Hamas-sympathizing countries should take these Gazans now.”

DeSantis has emphasized Haley’s comments about separating “civilians from terrorists” as evidence of her being open to letting Gazan refugees into America.

“Why would you even have the discussion about vetting people and saying you can separate one from the other unless you were saying we would import them?” the Florida governor told podcast host Megyn Kelly Tuesday.

“Why would we be vetting people, if they’re just going to go take up shop in Egypt? We’d have no role in that,” he added. “So clearly, that’s what she was indicating. She got a lot of blowback from it, because it’s an untenable position. And so now she’s changed.”

Haley’s campaign views the escalating attacks on the former ambassador to the United Nations as evidence of her rise as a candidate, pointing out several recent polls where she comes in second behind former President Donald Trump while also reporting double DeSantis’ cash on hand.

“Desperate campaigns do desperate things. Nikki was taking on Hamas and standing up for Israel at the UN, while DeSantis was a backbench congressman voting to increase the debt and trying to ban fracking. Nikki is surging and DeSantis is flailing,” Haley’s campaign said in a statement.

The DeSantis campaign has touted the aggressive response of the governor to the Israel-Hamas conflict, noting he was the first to denounce President Biden’s announcement Wednesday of $100 million in aid to the Palestinian territories. He has also helped charter two Florida-funded flights bringing Americans home from the war zone.

Haley’s camp claimed she was way ahead of DeSantis’ call to stop funding Gaza, pointing to the Trump administration halting aid to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) when she was ambassador.

In response, DeSantis’ campaign highlighted remarks by Haley in 2017 arguing for aid to Gaza to “help mankind.”

The two presidential hopefuls are likely to square off in the third GOP debate in Miami on Nov. 8.