The State Department has halted transports and is reviewing its visa approval process for medical evacuees from Gaza after MAGA influencer Laura Loomer released video footage showing dozens of apparently healthy Palestinians arriving at American airports this month.

“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 State Department announced on X on Saturday.

The announcement followed a series of posts by Ms. Loomer, who shared video footage of dozens of Gazans entering the country in Seattle, San Francisco, and Houston. She questioned which State Department employees were approving medical visas that included family members and companions. 

“How did Palestinians get Visas under the Trump administration to get into the United States? Did @StateDept approve this? How did they get out of Gaza? Is @SecRubio aware of this? Who from the State Department is assisting “Heal Palestine”?” she asked. 

Her commentary earned support from several Republican lawmakers.

“No Gazans should be entering the United States. Period,” posted Congressman Randy Fine.

“Deeply concerned about the incoming flights — including to Texas — allegedly filled with folks from Gaza as reported by @LauraLoomer. Inquiring,” wrote Congressman Chip Roy. He later called the State Department’s pause “Step 1.”

The airlift organizers, HEAL Palestine, issued a statement on Sunday saying it was “distressed” by the State Department’s decision to stop children and their families coming to America on a temporary basis. 

“After their treatment is complete, the children and any accompanying family members return to the Middle East. This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” reads the statement.

More than 7,500 Gazans and their escorts have been airlifted to European and Middle Eastern nations in coordination with Israel, the World Health Organization, and other non-governmental organizations.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said that 31 patients and their companions arrived in Rome, Milan, and Pisa this week suffering from congenital diseases, wounds, or amputations. Italy has received more than 180 patients from Gaza since October 2023. Dozens more traveled last week to Belgium and Turkey.

The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is urging transfer of 14,800 patients to European and other nations from Gaza, saying that the area’s medical system is not equipped to handle current case loads. 

The decision to expedite transfers, which includes not just the sick, but dozens of others, has raised concerns not just in America but in Britain. 

In the United Kingdom, a group of parliamentarians has urged the government to forego the biometric tests required of all visa applicants to expedite the transfer of sick and injured children from Gaza.

Prime Minister Keri Starmer pledged earlier this month to set up an evacuation system. The Home Office said it will evacuate a few hundred children after it completes the biometric tests — fingerprints and a digital photograph — to confirm identities of patients and their companions. 

While the State Department halts incoming flights of medical evacuees over security concerns, Israel is defending itself over the speed of transport for some of Gaza’s medical evacuees. On Sunday, the Israeli government shared medical records of a 20-year-old Gazan woman whose death following a medical evacuation to Italy was reported to be the result of malnutrition, not the aggressive form of leukemia she suffered.

The woman, Marah Zohry, arrived at Pisa hospital on Wednesday in a “state of severe physical deterioration,” according to Italian and other media. Not mentioned in reports by the BBC and other international news agencies was the cancer diagnosis that the Naser Hospital in Khan Younis had written up just days earlier.

The Israeli Defense Ministry agency that coordinates humanitarian matters in the Gaza Strip said Israel had offered several earlier dates to evacuate the woman, who was diagnosed with the rare blood cancer caused by a genetic mutation.

“Italian authorities contacted Israel requesting Marah’s evacuation due to her illness, and Israel approved it,” wrote Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in an X post in response to the BBC report. 

“Israel facilitates the medical transfer of patients, with a focus on children, and encourages countries around the world to make such requests, while Hamas keeps cynically exploiting them for its twisted agenda,” the post continued.
The BBC and others reported that the University Hospital of Pisa announced Zohry’s death less than 48 hours after her arrival. Saying she suffered severe weight and muscle loss, the hospital called her case a “very complex clinical picture.”