The U.S. State Department has paused a visa program for Gaza
residents, just days after injured and sick children arrived for medical care.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department received inquiries from many congressional offices on the process by which the children and their accompanying adults were awarded medical-humanitarian visas.
A number of children from Gaza were sent to the United States last week by the charity organization Heal Palestine to receive medical care in places like Seattle and Houston.
Laura Loomer, a conservative broadcaster, referred to them as refugees and a threat to national security.
However, according to Secretary Rubio, a number of congressional offices have also produced documentation that they believe demonstrates some of the groups involved in obtaining these visas have ties to Hamas.
Rubio did not go into detail over the weekend about the nature of the material or the purportedly implicated organizations.
"We are not going to be in partnership with groups that are friendly with Hamas. So, we're going to pause those visas, there was just a small numbers of them issued to children, but they come with adults accompanying them, obviously – and we are going to pause this program and re-evaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship there has been, if any, by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas,"
Rubio said on CBS' Face the Nation.
In a statement on social media, Heal Palestine said in part that they are "Distressed by the State Department's decision."
"This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program. Our mission gives children a renewed chance at life,"
the group said.
The length of time the State Department intends to suspend the Gaza tourist visa program is unclear.
"People will lose their lives over that decision and others will may not lose their lives, but they'll lose hope of getting better treatment, of getting of getting better faster, of getting better care,"
Carroll said, speaking about the State Department's decision.
"And I don't think that if we are to be humane and be humans, we should recognize that innocent civilians, children who are, who are severely injured or who are, who need medical care because of a combination of factors of not enough food, of bad hygiene conditions, because of the destruction of water and sanitation systems - they should be helped. And, and I think the U.S. should be at the top of the list of countries that's helping people, innocent civilians, Palestinians from Gaza who need medical care."
According to the World Health Organization, over 14,000 Gazans are in urgent need of life-saving medical attention.
Before the war, 50 to 100 Gazans would travel daily to receive necessary medical attention. Few people are currently able to go for medical care because the borders are closed.
How many recent medical-humanitarian visas to Gaza were issued before the halt?
Before the halt, the U.S. State Department had issued a
total of 3,804 visitor visas (class B1/B2) to holders of Palestinian Authority
travel documents from January to the end of May 2025. This figure includes
about 640 visas issued in May alone.
These visas cover both medical-humanitarian and tourism purposes, but the State Department characterized the number of recently issued temporary medical-humanitarian visas as "a small number."
Specifically, several dozen injured and sick Palestinians, mostly children accompanied by family members, were brought to the U.S. in recent weeks for medical treatment through humanitarian organizations like HEAL Palestine before the program was paused.