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WASHINGTON: The US government said Saturday it is suspending visitor visas for Gazans after a far-right influencer with the ear of President Donald Trump complained that wounded Palestinians had been allowed to seek medical treatment in the United States.
The announcement came one day after a series of furious social media posts by Laura Loomer, who is known for promoting racist conspiracy theories and claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job.
“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, which is led by Marco Rubio, wrote on X.
In a series of posts on X Friday, Loomer called on the State Department to stop giving visas to Palestinians from Gaza who she said were “pro-HAMAS... affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and funded by Qatar,” without providing evidence.
Loomer’s target was the US-based charity HEAL Palestine, which said last week it had helped 11 critically wounded Gazan children — as well as their caregivers and siblings — arrive safely in the US for medical treatment.
It was “the largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the US,” the charity said on its website.
“Truly unacceptable,” Loomer wrote in another X post. “Someone needs to be fired at @StateDept when @marcorubio figures out who approved the visas.”
“Qatar transported these GAZANS into the US via @qatarairways,” she said. Qatar is “literally flooding our country with jihadis,” she added.
Loomer said she had spoken to the staff of Republican Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, adding that they were “also looking into how these GAZANS got visas to come into the US.”
Republican Congressman Randy Fine explicitly commended Loomer after the visa change was announced, in a sign of her sway over some US policy.
“Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura,” Fine wrote on X.
The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, a US-based charity, called on the Trump administration to “reverse this dangerous and inhumane decision.”
Over the last 30 years the charity has evacuated thousands of Palestinian children to the US for medical care, it said a statement.
“Medical evacuations are a lifeline for the children of Gaza who would otherwise face unimaginable suffering or death due to the collapse of medical infrastructure in Gaza.”
Though Loomer holds no official position, she wields significant power, and is reported to have successfully pushed for the dismissal of several senior US security officials she deemed disloyal to Trump.
In July, Loomer took aim at a job offer made to a highly qualified Biden-era official for a prestigious position at the West Point military academy. The Pentagon rescinded the offer one day later.
Trump also fired the head of the highly sensitive National Security Agency, Timothy Haugh, and his deputy Wendy Noble in April at the apparent urging of Loomer, after she met with the president at the White House.
“No other content creator or journalist has gotten as many Biden holdovers fired from the Trump admin!” Loomer posted on X Saturday.

LONDON: At least 60 people will be prosecuted for “showing support” for the recently proscribed Palestine Action group, in addition to three already charged, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

“We have put arrangements in place that will enable us to investigate and prosecute significant numbers each week if necessary,” the Met said in a statement.

More than 700 people have been arrested since it was banned as a terrorist group in early July, including 522 people arrested at a protest last weekend for displaying placards backing the group — thought to be the highest ever recorded number of detentions at a single protest in the UK capital.

“The decisions that we have announced today are the first significant numbers to come out of the recent protests, and many more can be expected in the next few weeks,” said Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson.

“People should be clear about the real-life consequences for anyone choosing to support Palestine Action,” said Parkinson.

The first three people were charged earlier this month with offenses under the Terrorism Act for backing Palestine Action, after they were arrested at a July demonstration.

According to police, those charged for such offenses could face up to six months imprisonment, as well as other consequences.

“I am proud of how our police and CPS (prosecution) teams have worked so speedily together to overcome misguided attempts to overwhelm the justice system,” Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said. In a statement following the latest mass arrests, Interior Minister Yvette Cooper defended the Labour government’s decision, insisting: “UK national security and public safety must always be our top priority.”

“The assessments are very clear — this is not a nonviolent organization,” she added.

The government outlawed Palestine Action on July 7, days after it took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated £7.0 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft.

The group said its activists were responding to Britain’s indirect military support for Israel amid the war in Gaza.

Britain’s Interior Ministry has insisted that Palestine Action was also suspected of other “serious attacks” that involved “violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.”

Critics, including the UN, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace, have criticized the proscription as an overreach of the law and warned that the ensuing arrests threaten free speech.

The UK’s Liberal Democrat party said that it was “deeply concerned about the use of terrorism powers against peaceful protesters.”