US halts visitor visas used for medical trips from Gaza

The US State Department announced it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza.

The pause was issued to 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 agency said on X.

The decision has drawn condemnation from some Palestinian rights groups.

Palestine Children's Relief Fund said in a statement that the decision "will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment".

The State Department's policy shift comes after far right activist Laura Loomer wrote a series of posts on X criticising the visa programme and urging the Trump administration to "shut this abomination down."