Palestinian children gather near containers used for water in Gaza City.
Credit: Reuters Photo
The Trump administration announced Saturday that it had paused approvals of visitor visas for people from the Gaza Strip, a key pathway for those seeking medical care in the United States, including young children who arrived in recent weeks with serious conditions.
The State Department said it would assess the process behind those visas. “All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review,” the department said in a statement on the social platform X on Saturday morning.
The move came after an intense lobbying campaign by right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who called the incoming flights a “national security threat” in a flurry of social media posts starting Friday that targeted a nonprofit aiding in medical evacuations.
Just weeks ago, the nonprofit, HEAL Palestine, an Ohio-based group that helps Palestinian families and children, began orchestrating what it called the “largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the U.S.,” bringing injured and ill children from Gaza to the United States for care.
To date, the group says it has evacuated 63 injured children for treatment, including 11, from age 6 to 15, who were flown to hospitals in nine U.S. cities this month. Many of the children had lost limbs during the conflict in Gaza. They are expected to travel to Egypt to rejoin their families once their medical care is completed, according to HEAL Palestine.
The group, which was founded last year and also operates food kitchens in Gaza, did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Dr. Zeena Salman, a co-founder of HEAL Palestine, said in a statement that the medical evacuation flights were a matter of life or death. “These children could not wait,” Salman said. “Their lives are at stake, and this mission is about giving them a future.”
Loomer, who wields extraordinary power in shaping Trump administration decisions over personnel and policy despite not having an official role in government, said she first learned of the flights earlier this month.
“I felt like this is something that needs attention,” she said in an interview. “Under the Trump administration, they are actively importing Gazans into the U.S. Clearly this is not what we voted for.”