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 remedy on Aug. 9, 2025.
Mehmet Eser/Center East Photos/AFP through Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Mehmet Eser/Center East Photos/AFP through Getty Photos
The U.S. State Division stated 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 review of the process 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 number.”
An Ohio-based humanitarian group, HEAL Palestine, is the principle American group serving to evacuate individuals — primarily injured youngsters and relations — and bringing them to a number of cities within the U.S. for medical remedy. 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” underneath the “false claim” of humanitarian support.
She additionally demanded that the “Trump administration needs to shut this abomination down ASAP before a family member of one of these GAZANS goes rogue and kills Americans for HAMAS.”
Writing on X on Saturday, Loomer took credit score for the State Division’s resolution to halt the humanitarian visa program for individuals from Gaza, calling the information “fantastic” and thanking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for this resolution.
“This policy makes no sense whatsoever,” 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 is sheer cruelty. It is literally going to put the lives of more children at risk.”
He added that the USA has a “special moral obligation” to offer medical remedy, or the flexibility for households to come back to the U.S. and get their very own medical care.
It’s unclear how lengthy it can 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 corporation backed by the United Nations that tracks meals safety around the globe discovered {that a} “worst-case” famine state of affairs is taking part in out in Gaza. The U.N. estimates that just about Palestinian 100,000 ladies and youngsters face extreme malnutrition needing remedy immediately, and a couple of third of Gaza’s 2.1 million individuals have not eaten for days.
