Nearly two weeks ago, three injured Palestinian children from Gaza arrived in San Francisco for medical treatment.
Now, the program that brought them here is in jeopardy, after the U.S. State Department suspended visitor visas for people from Gaza.
The department said Saturday on the social media platform X that it would stop all visitor visas from Gaza to conduct “a full and thorough review of the process and procedures” used to issue temporary medical-humanitarian visas.
The decision has drawn condemnation from Bay Area advocates and officials, who say countless children awaiting lifesaving care are now stuck in limbo.
“It is outlandish beyond belief that in the Trump administration’s ongoing Israel-first policies and targeting of immigrants that they would then turn their attention to the most vulnerable children in the world,” Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area office, told KQED. “The only place left for these children to seek assistance is outside of Gaza.”
The Ohio-based nonprofit Heal Palestine helped 11 injured children evacuate this month as part of the mission, the nonprofit said. Layan, 14, Ghazal, 6, and Anas, 8, flew into San Francisco International Airport at the beginning of the month with loved ones. The children were injured in three separate bombings, according to Heal Palestine.
Billoo said children and caregivers who leave Gaza already undergo a “rigorous vetting process,” which includes approval from both the Israeli and U.S. government.
“How many specifically are waiting to travel to the United States is unclear, but the number of children in need is in the tens of thousands,” Billoo said.
The department’s decision came less than a day after far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer falsely claimed on X that the children’s arrival — which is considered the largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the country by organizers — that Heal Palestine was “mass importing GAZANS into the US.”
More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the region’s health ministry said on Monday. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, more than 18,000 children have been killed in Gaza in the last 22 months.
In her post, Loomer accused one of the leaders of Heal Palestine of “propping up Palestinian NGOS that have been accused of having Islamic terror ties.”
Heal Palestine said it was “distressed” by the State Department’s decision.
“HEAL Palestine is an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine, including sponsoring and bringing severely injured children to the U.S. on temporary visas for essential medical treatment not available at home,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program.”
Dr. Mohammad Subeh, a Palestinian American emergency doctor based in the Bay Area who aided in the evacuation and volunteers with Heal Palestine, told KQED that he was bewildered by the department’s decision because of how much vetting happens before children are brought over.
“It made it seem that the State Department had no clue as to the current processes in place to actually approve or disapprove the visa issuance for these children and their guardians. It’s just not in line with reality,” Subeh said. “The most troubling thing is allowing the incitement of fear and hatred to control how we view these children in very dehumanizing terms.”
Subeh said that five children he treated in Gaza have since been evacuated, including some of the children who flew into SFO, but that more than 5,000 are still waiting for a higher level of care.
“The pause of the last 48 hours just halts any and all cases in the pipeline to potentially be evacuated,” Subeh continued. “It’s not an easy task to come here for this type of treatment. So, for all of those hundreds, if not thousands, who are already in the process of being vetted, all of those cases have come to a complete halt.”
Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San José, said on X that each day “we halt visas for children in dire need of medical assistance is unconscionable and cruel.”
Loomer gave herself credit for the State Department’s announcement, celebrating her post as the reason the visas were halted.
“This is fantastic news,” Loomer wrote on X. “Hopefully, all GAZANS will be added to Trump’s travel ban.”
KQED’s María Fernanda Bernal contributed to this report.
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