State Division halts visas for folks from Gaza : NPR

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Mehmet Eser/Center East Photos/AFP by way of Getty Photos The U.S. State Division mentioned Saturday that it is stopping all customer visas for folks from Gaza. The division made the announcement on the social media platform X, saying that it is halting these visas to conduct "a full and thorough assessment of the method and procedures" used for granting "medical-humanitarian" visas.

The State Division didn't instantly reply to NPR's request for particulars on what number of such visas have been granted in latest months, however its announcement described it as "a small quantity."

An Ohio-based humanitarian group, HEAL Palestine, is the primary American group serving to evacuate folks — primarily injured youngsters and relations — and bringing them to a number of cities within the U.S. for medical therapy. In keeping with the group's web site, it has evacuated 148 folks from Gaza, together with 63 youngsters.

On Aug. 4, the group introduced the arrival of 11 critically injured youngsters, ages 6 to fifteen, together with their siblings and caregivers to a number of main cities, together with Boston, Atlanta and Dallas, for medical care.

The information of their arrival led far-right activist Laura Loomer to assert — with out offering any supporting proof — on social media that HEAL Palestine "is mass importing GAZANS into the US" underneath the "false declare" of humanitarian help.

She additionally demanded that the "Trump administration must shut this abomination down ASAP earlier than a member of the family of one in all these GAZANS goes rogue and kills Individuals for HAMAS."

Writing on X on Saturday, Loomer took credit score for the State Division's choice to halt the humanitarian visa program for folks from Gaza, calling the information "implausible" and thanking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for this choice.

"This coverage is unnecessary in any way," says Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the nationwide deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which launched a press release condemning the State Division's motion. "It's sheer cruelty. It's actually going to place the lives of extra youngsters in danger."

He added that the USA has a "particular ethical obligation" to offer medical therapy, or the power for households to come back to the U.S. and get their very own medical care.

It's unclear how lengthy it can take the State Division to conduct its assessment of the method for medical-humanitarian visas for people from Gaza.

Greater than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza for the reason that starting of the Israel-Hamas battle in October 2023. And dire meals shortages in latest months are killing extra folks there, together with youngsters.

A latest report by a company backed by the United Nations that tracks meals safety all over the world discovered {that a} "worst-case" famine situation is enjoying out in Gaza. The U.N. estimates that just about Palestinian 100,000 ladies and youngsters face extreme malnutrition needing therapy straight away, and a couple of third of Gaza's 2.1 million folks have not eaten for days.