The state university system of Florida announced Tuesday that campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine must be "deactivated," citing their support for recent terrorist attacks by Hamas.

The announcement was made in a letter to state university presidents from state university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, who said the decision was made in consultation with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) because the student groups have made statements supportive of Hamas's Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel. The attack and Israel's subsequent military response have claimed the lives of more than 7,000 people on both sides, according to numbers from Israeli officials and the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

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In the letter, Rodrigues said that Students for Justice in Palestine's support for the attack violated state law, which prohibits providing "material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization," and directed the colleges to disband the clubs.

"National SJP has affirmatively identified it is part of the Operation Al-Agsa Flood—a terrorist led attack," he wrote. "The State University System of Florida has at least two institutions with active National SJP Chapters. These chapters exist under the headship of the National Students for Justice in Palestine, who distributed a toolkit identifying themselves as part of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Based on the National SJP support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated."

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The letter did not identify which schools have chapters, but a chapter at the University of Florida released a statement on Oct. 10, three days after the attacks, that said the group "stand[s] in full support of Palestinian liberation" and said the attacks were a "response to decades of oppression and inhumanity."

"The State University System will continue working with the Executive Office of the Governor and SUS's Board of Governors to ensure we are all using all tools at our disposal to crack down on campus demonstrations that delve beyond protected First Amendment speech into harmful support for terrorist groups," Rodrigues said. "These measures could include necessary adverse employment actions and suspensions for school officials."