WASHINGTON – Following videos posted by conservative activist Laura Loomer on social media showcasing children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical aid, the State Department announced it is suspending all visitor visas from Gaza for a review.
On Saturday, the State Department decided to pause issuing visas as it examines how “a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas” were granted recently. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the decision followed numerous inquiries from congressional offices.
Rubio stressed that only “a small number” of such visas were given to children needing medical help, and they were accompanied by adults. He mentioned that congressional offices provided information suggesting “some organizations involved in securing these visas have direct connections to terrorist groups like Hamas,” although he didn’t offer specific evidence or names.
Consequently, he stated, “we will pause this initiative and reexamine the process of vetting these visas and any potential ties these organizations might have in acquiring them.”
Loomer posted videos on Friday on X, showing children from Gaza landing this month in San Francisco and Houston for medical treatment, facilitated by HEAL Palestine. She questioned how they traveled to the U.S., given that “the US is not permitting Palestinian ‘refugees’ under the Trump administration.”
Calling the situation a “national security threat,” she demanded to know who authorized the visas and insisted that the individual responsible be dismissed. She tagged Rubio, President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and California Governor Gavin Newsom in her post.
Trump has downplayed Loomer’s influence on his administration, but several officials swiftly left or were removed shortly after she publicly criticized them.
The State Department on Sunday declined to comment on how many of the visas had been granted and whether the decision to halt visas to people from Gaza had anything to do with Loomer’s posts.
HEAL Palestine said in a statement Sunday that it was “distressed” by the State Department decision to stop halt visitor visas from Gaza. The group said it is “an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine.”
A post on the organization’s Facebook page Thursday shows a photo of a boy from Gaza leaving Egypt and headed to St. Louis for treatment and said he is “our 15th evacuated child arriving in the U.S. in the last two weeks.”
The organization brings “severely injured children” to the U.S. on temporary visas for treatment they can’t get at home, the statement said. Following treatment, the children and any family members who accompanied them return to the Middle East, the statement said.
“This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” it said.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly called for more medical evacuations from Gaza, where Israel’s over 22-month war against Hamas has heavily destroyed or damaged much of the territory’s health system.
“More than 14,800 patients still need lifesaving medical care that is not available in Gaza,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday on social media, and called on more countries to offer support.
A WHO description of the medical evacuation process from Gaza published last year explained that the WHO submits lists of patients to Israeli authorities for security clearance. It noted that before the war in Gaza began, 50 to 100 patients were leaving Gaza daily for medical treatment, and it called for a higher rate of approvals from Israeli authorities.
The U.N. and partners say medicines and even basic health care supplies are low in Gaza after Israel cut off all aid to the territory of over 2 million people for more than 10 weeks earlier this year.
“Ceasefire! Peace is the best medicine,” Tedros added Wednesday.
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