Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is in Israel to aid Americans in escaping the country, which has been ravaged by fighting over the last few days.
Mills, an Army veteran and then a defense contractor, previously assisted with the withdrawal of refugees from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal when he was a congressional candidate in 2021. According to his office, he is working with the same team that assisted with those withdrawals.
Mills’s office said he helped 32 Americans evacuate on Wednesday, and he is hoping to make another trip on Thursday.
By embarking on the trip, Mills missed the internal House GOP Speaker nomination vote, which Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). Mills had said he intended to support Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for the position.
Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) posted a photo of the Florida Republican in Israel on social media, saying that he is helping evacuate U.S. citizens in the wake of Hamas’s attack over the weekend and the ensuing bloodshed.
“My friend, Florida Representative Cory Mills, is currently on the ground in Israel, helping to evacuate American citizens who are trapped in Israel. May God keep them safe as they continue their rescue efforts! @CoryMillsFL,” Flores wrote in a post on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
Mills told The Floridian that his trip to Israel was “helping and showing solidarity with our Israeli brethren and helping Americans evacuate.”
The State Department confirmed Wednesday that 22 American citizens have died in Israel since Saturday. The White House also said that Americans were among those being held by Hamas in the wake of its unprecedented attacks over the weekend.