US halts visas for Gazans after Loomer highlights their arrival at airports

Telegraph

21 hours ago

The US has halted all visitor visas for people from Gaza after Laura Loomer, the far-Right activist, shared videos allegedly showing evacuees from the wartorn enclave arriving at US airports.
'All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct 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 US state department wrote in a statement posted on X.
On Friday, Ms Loomer, a Maga loyalist, posted several times about Heal Palestine, a humanitarian aid group, allegedly facilitating the evacuation of Gazans injured by Israeli forces to the US for medical treatment.
According to its website, the NGO has helped evacuate 148 people from Gaza, including 63 injured children.
It claims to have carried out the largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the US in July. This included 11 critically injured children, with their caregivers and siblings.
Among those evacuated were Seba, 12, who lost both legs in a school bombing and Anas, eight, who is the sole survivor of a bombing that killed his entire family.
Ms Loomer took credit for the state department's halt on medical humanitarian visas for Gazans on Saturday, saying it had been in response to the 'release of my reports yesterday exposing flights of Gazans arriving at airports all across the US'.
Writing on X, Ms Loomer said: 'The Trump administration needs to shut this abomination down ASAP before a family member of one of these Gazans goes rogue and kills Americans for Hamas.'
She also called for those responsible for approving humanitarian visas to the children and their families to be fired.
Her posts were picked up by some pro-Israel Republicans.
'Deeply concerned about the incoming flights – including to Texas – allegedly filled with folks from Gaza as reported by @LauraLoomer. Inquiring,' Congressman Chip Roy wrote on Friday.
Florida Republican Randy Fine said: 'Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware.'
The US government halting visas for children injured in Gaza comes amid continued outrage over the conditions faced by those in Gaza.
A baby girl and her parents were reportedly killed by an Israeli airstrike on Saturday, according to Nasser hospital officials and witnesses.
Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area.
Israel's military says it is dismantling Hamas' military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians.
Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said his forces plan to widen the coming military offensive.
The mobilisation of forces is expected to take weeks, and Israel may be using the threat to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages.
It comes as the United Nations was warned that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza were at their highest since the war began.
Palestinians are reportedly drinking contaminated water as diseases spread, while some Israeli leaders continue to talk openly about the mass relocation of people from Gaza.
Another 11 malnutrition-related deaths occurred in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry said on Saturday, bringing the malnutrition-related deaths during the war to 251.
The UN and partners say getting aid into the territory of more than two million people, and then on to distribution points, remains highly challenging with Israeli restrictions and pressure from crowds of hungry Palestinians.
The UN human rights office claims at least 1,760 people were killed while seeking aid between May 27 and last Wednesday.