The USA’s State Department has suspended all visitor visas for residents of Gaza, including those issued for urgent medical treatment, in a move that humanitarian groups are calling devastating and cruel. The decision effectively blocks injured and sick Palestinian children from traveling to the United States for lifesaving care.
The suspension follows a campaign by far-right activist Laura Loomer, who circulated videos of Palestinian children arriving for treatment and labeled them a “national security threat.” Within days, the Biden administration confirmed that all visas for Gazans had been halted pending a “thorough review.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the pause came in response to “congressional inquiries” and concerns about aid organizations’ alleged links to Hamas, though no evidence has been presented to support these claims.
For groups like HEAL Palestine and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, the impact is immediate. Children who have lost limbs, suffered severe burns, or endured other catastrophic injuries in Gaza’s bombardments were scheduled to receive surgeries and long-term treatment in U.S. hospitals. These were not cases of permanent relocation, patients were to return home after care. Now, their treatment has been indefinitely postponed.
Humanitarian advocates stress that the visas in question were already subject to multiple layers of vetting. By shutting down the program, Washington has prioritized political optics over urgent medical needs. The decision leaves some of the region’s most vulnerable, wounded and traumatized children, trapped without options for care.
The suspension highlights the degree to which U.S. policy is being swayed by domestic political campaigns and conspiracy-laden rhetoric. For the children of Gaza, however, the consequences are painfully real: critical care denied, futures endangered, and lives cut short by bureaucratic cruelty masquerading as security.