US halts visas for Palestinian medical evacuees from Gaza

The US State Department announced on Saturday it was halting all visitor visas for Palestinians from Gaza while it conducts a "full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days".

The move follows unverified claims posted on X by far-right commentator Laura Loomer, who alleged that Palestinians granted medical-humanitarian visas were “pro-Hamas” and tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Her posts drew support from some Republicans, including Congressman Randy Fine, who called the visas a “national security risk”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) condemned the restrictions, calling them “the latest example of the Trump administration’s complicity with Israel’s genocide” and “intentionally cruel”.

“It is deeply ironic that the Trump administration would ban Palestinian children seeking treatment while rolling out the red carpet for racists and indicted war criminals from the Israeli government,” Cair added in a statement on X.

According to Reuters, the US has issued more than 3,800 B1 and B2 visitor visas in 2025 to holders of Palestinian Authority travel documents, which allow foreigners to seek medical care in the United States. That total includes 640 visas issued in May alone.

Heal Palestine, an NGO that coordinates evacuations for injured children and their families, said it has assisted 148 people so far this year, including 63 children in urgent need of care.

On 4 August, the group announced its “largest single medical evacuation” to date, bringing 11 critically injured children, along with caregivers, to the US for long-term treatment and rehabilitation.

Basic right

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, which has facilitated free medical care for sick and injured children for more than 30 years, warned the visa halt would strip children of their “most basic right to access medical care”.

Reacting to the new policy, Loomer wrote on X that she hoped "GAZANS are added to the Trump travel ban", which targets a number of Middle East countries, "and hopefully every single Gazan who came in under [former US President] Biden and Trump is immediately deported”.

“They are not that sick if they can sit on a plane for 22 hours,” she added.

Israel’s bombardment has devastated Gaza’s healthcare system, leaving the besieged enclave without a single fully functioning hospital. The World Health Organisation estimates that as many as 12,500 patients in Gaza require evacuation for medical treatment.