By By Micheal Chukwuebuka
THE U.S. State Department has temporarily suspended visitor visas for residents of Gaza pending a review, following controversy over the arrival of Palestinian children in the United States for medical treatment.
The decision, announced Saturday, comes after conservative activist Laura Loomer posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in San Francisco and Houston earlier this month with the aid of the nonprofit group HEAL Palestine. Loomer questioned how the children received visas, calling their entry a “national security threat.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that only “a small number” of temporary humanitarian visas had been issued in recent days for children in need of urgent medical care, accompanied by family members. He noted the suspension followed inquiries from several congressional offices.
“These offices presented evidence that some of the organizations involved in obtaining these visas may have ties to terrorist groups like Hamas,” Rubio told CBS’s Face the Nation, though he did not name the groups or provide evidence. “We are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted.”
HEAL Palestine said it was “distressed” by the State Department’s decision, emphasizing in a statement that it is a U.S.-based humanitarian nonprofit dedicated to helping children in Gaza. The group said it has evacuated 15 severely injured children to the U.S. for treatment over the past two weeks.
“This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” the organization stressed, adding that patients and their family members return to the Middle East after care.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly urged more medical evacuations from Gaza, where nearly two years of war have devastated the health system. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week that more than 14,800 patients urgently need care unavailable in Gaza and appealed to governments to offer treatment abroad.
Before the war, 50 to 100 patients a day were permitted to leave Gaza for medical care, according to the WHO. The agency has called for increased approvals, noting shortages of medicines and basic supplies in the territory of more than 2 million people.
“Ceasefire! Peace is the best medicine,” Tedros wrote on social media.
Source: ABC13 Houston
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