Trump Is Blocking Gaza’s Children from Medical Care Because Laura Loomer Threw a Tantrum

HEAL Palestine responded to the White House’s decision, clarifying its role as “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 group stressed: “This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program.” Loomer’s response has been to try and link the organization’s founder, Steve Sosebee, to Hamas. 

In a statement released Sunday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations also called the move “intentionally cruel”; former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs tweeted that “denying sick people critical medical care is cowardly & depraved”; and emergency-room physician Dr. Mohammed Subeh, who works for HEAL Palestine, said he was “saddened to see fear and hate permeate within a small yet vocal segment of our society.” Meanwhile, Chip Roy, a GOP representative from Texas, tweeted “Step 1” in response to the State Department’s announcement, and Randy Fine, a GOP congressman from Florida, tweeted “Well done, Laura.”

Despite unsuccessfully running for Congress twice and being denied any formal title in the Trump administration, Loomer has declared herself MAGA’s “loyalty enforcer,” and crawled her way into the president’s ear. In July, the New York Times reported how she’s had influence over who the White House fires and hires. That same month, she cheered on Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

Apart from critical thinking, Loomer’s recent targets include an online dating website and MAGA enemy Marjorie Taylor Greene. Her crusade against Palestinian victims of war, however, is one of particularly evil odium. On Sunday–as Israel’s aid blockade was starving people in the Gaza Strip–she reposted the HEAL Palestine video, asking: “Why are these GAZANS who came into our country so chubby? I thought they were starving?” In a separate tweet, she wrote: “The American people overwhelmingly agree. We don’t want GAZANS to be imported here.” There’s no hell hot enough.

As of Monday, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 62,000, according to the Associated Press. And in March, Trump bypassed a congressional review to approve a new $3 billion arms sale to Israel. The president has also used the conflict for political ridicule, saying he not only wants to own the Gaza Strip, but turn the area into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Israel continues to block humanitarian aid from entering and, as of August 10, has killed at least 270 journalists since October 2023. 

A report from NBC News says that in 2025, over 3,800 B1/B2 visas allowing visitors to seek medical treatment in the U.S. have been issued to “holders of the Palestinian Authority travel document.” While it’s uncertain how many of these visas were given to Gazans and how many were given to people from the West Bank, stopping medical-humanitarian visas will have horrible consequences. “This policy,” the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund told NBC, “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—a mission that has defined our work for more than 30 years.”

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