State Department halts ‘medical-humanitarian’ visas for people from Gaza

The U.S. State Department said Saturday that it’s stopping all visitor visas for people from Gaza. The department made the announcement on the social media platform X, saying that it’s halting these visas to conduct “a full and thorough review of the process and procedures” used for granting “medical-humanitarian” visas.

The State Department did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for details on how many such visas have been granted in recent months, but its announcement described it as “a small number.”

An Ohio-based humanitarian group, HEAL Palestine, is the main American organization helping evacuate people — primarily injured children and family members — and bringing them to several cities in the U.S. for medical treatment. According to the organization’s website, it has evacuated 148 people from Gaza, including 63 children.

On Aug. 4, the organization announced the arrival of 11 critically injured children, ages 6 to 15, along with their siblings and caregivers to several major cities, including Boston, Atlanta and Dallas, for medical care.

The news of their arrival led far-right activist Laura Loomer to claim — without providing any supporting evidence — on social media that HEAL Palestine “is mass importing GAZANS into the US” under the “false claim” of humanitarian aid.

She also 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 for the State Department’s decision to halt the humanitarian visa program for people from Gaza, calling the news “fantastic” and thanking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for this decision.

“This policy makes no sense whatsoever,” says Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which released a statement condemning the State Department’s action. “It is sheer cruelty. It is literally going to put the lives of more children at risk.”

He added that the United States has a “special moral obligation” to provide medical treatment, or the ability for families to come to the U.S. and get their own medical care.

It is unclear how long it will take the State Department to conduct its review of the process for medical-humanitarian visas for individuals from Gaza.

More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. And dire food shortages in recent months are killing more people there, including children.

A recent report by an organization backed by the United Nations that tracks food security around the world found that a “worst-case” famine scenario is playing out in Gaza. The U.N. estimates that nearly Palestinian 100,000 women and children face severe malnutrition needing treatment right away, and about a third of Gaza’s 2.1 million people haven’t eaten for days.