A Palestinian man with his sick daughter before leaving the Gaza Strip to get treatment abroad through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, June 27, 2024. ABDEL KAREEM HANA / AP
A day after conservative activist Laura Loomer posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the US for medical treatment and questioning how they got visas, the State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a review.
The State Department said Saturday, August 16, that the visas would be stopped while it looks into how "a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas" were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told Face the Nation on CBS that the action came after "outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it."
Rubio said there were "just a small number" of visas issued to children in need of medical aid but that they were accompanied by adults. The congressional offices reached out with evidence that "some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas," he asserted, without providing evidence or naming those organizations.
