A bunch of individuals collect to greet two severely wounded Palestinian youngsters from Gaza arriving at Dulles Worldwide Airport close to Washington for pressing medical therapy on Aug. 9, 2025.
Mehmet Eser/Center East Photos/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Mehmet Eser/Center East Photos/AFP by way of Getty Photos
The U.S. State Division mentioned Saturday that it is stopping all customer visas for individuals from Gaza. The division made the announcement on the social media platform X, saying that it is halting these visas to conduct “a full and thorough evaluate of the method and procedures” used for granting “medical-humanitarian” visas.
The State Division didn’t instantly reply to NPR’s request for particulars on what number of such visas have been granted in current months, however its announcement described it as “a small quantity.”
An Ohio-based humanitarian group, HEAL Palestine, is the primary American group serving to evacuate individuals — primarily injured youngsters and members of the family — and bringing them to a number of cities within the U.S. for medical therapy. In line with the group’s web site, it has evacuated 148 individuals from Gaza, together with 63 youngsters.
On Aug. 4, the group introduced the arrival of 11 critically injured youngsters, ages 6 to fifteen, together with their siblings and caregivers to a number of main cities, together with Boston, Atlanta and Dallas, for medical care.
The information of their arrival led far-right activist Laura Loomer to assert — with out offering any supporting proof — on social media that HEAL Palestine “is mass importing GAZANS into the US” below the “false declare” of humanitarian assist.
She additionally demanded that the “Trump administration must shut this abomination down ASAP earlier than a member of the family of one in all these GAZANS goes rogue and kills Individuals for HAMAS.”
Writing on X on Saturday, Loomer took credit score for the State Division’s choice to halt the humanitarian visa program for individuals from Gaza, calling the information “incredible” and thanking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for this choice.
“This coverage is mindless in anyway,” says Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the nationwide deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which launched a press release condemning the State Division’s motion. “It’s sheer cruelty. It’s actually going to place the lives of extra youngsters in danger.”
He added that the US has a “particular ethical obligation” to supply medical therapy, or the power for households to come back to the U.S. and get their very own medical care.
It’s unclear how lengthy it should take the State Division to conduct its evaluate of the method for medical-humanitarian visas for people from Gaza.
Greater than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza for the reason that starting of the Israel-Hamas struggle in October 2023. And dire meals shortages in current months are killing extra individuals there, together with youngsters.
A current report by a company backed by the United Nations that tracks meals safety all over the world discovered {that a} “worst-case” famine state of affairs is enjoying out in Gaza. The U.N. estimates that almost Palestinian 100,000 girls and youngsters face extreme malnutrition needing therapy straight away, and a couple of third of Gaza’s 2.1 million individuals have not eaten for days.
