There are children in Gaza who are grievously injured or seriously ill. The medical system there is in tatters after almost two years of war, but the United States has the medical capacity to help some of those kids. We should do it.

However the State Department announced on Aug. 16 that all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza were 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 announcement came after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns about danger posed by “pro-Hamas” Gazans being brought into the United States.

However, it should be noted that for Palestinians seeking to leave Gaza for treatment, the vetting process starts with a Gazan doctor making a referral, which must be approved by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The ministry submits names to the World Health Organization, which shares them with host countries. Once a country accepts a patient, Israel vets them and any companions for security risks before deciding whether to allow them to leave Gaza.

Once treatment is complete, evacuees must leave the United States. (Medical humanitarian visas last for six months and can be renewed for up to five years if treatment is continuing.)

“This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” HEAL Palestine, a nonprofit that organizes Palestinian medical evacuations to the United States, said in a statement. If returning to Gaza is not viable, the organization says patients go to Egypt.

It’s a simple idea and one that represents the best of American values. It’s a statement of soft power, the idea that building good will internationally will pay dividends on the international stage.

The need for medical treatment for Gazans is dire. Even before the war, the World Health Organization said 50 to 100 patients a day were leaving Gaza for treatment at more advanced hospitals in Israel and the West Bank. After Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Israel stopped allowing Gazans to enter. The subsequent war crippled Gaza’s health care system. The Hamas-run Health Ministry estimates that 14,800 patients need medical evacuation.

Moumen Al-Natour, a Palestinian living in Gaza City who has organized against Hamas and is president of Palestinian Youth for Development, said he has known individuals who died for lack of medical care.

Last week, his sister broke her hand and needed surgery, but she was unable to find a hospital to perform the surgery because, Al-Natour alleged, the local hospitals are being used by Hamas for security rather than health care purposes. Al-Natour, who spoke to the editorial board in Arabic through a translator via WhatsApp, said there are field hospitals offering services, generally run by European nations, but they cannot meet the demand.

Al-Natour has called for hospitals to be established in “safe zones” where civilians can live outside of Hamas control, but he said Gazans also need humanitarian visas from the United States to help those who cannot be treated locally.

“When the Ukraine crisis started, we saw all the Western world opened the doors to Ukrainians to come,” he said. “After Oct. 7, everyone closed the door on us…. You can’t lock people in this desolate place in the ruins of war and not allow them to leave.”

The number of Gazan children brought to the United States for medical care is small, although exact numbers are unknown.

A World Health Organization dashboard says 28 medical patients, with 26 companions, have been evacuated from Gaza to the United States since July 2024. Groups that work with Palestinian evacuees told the editorial board that number is an undercount, since most patients taken to the United States were first evacuated elsewhere, but the total number of patients is likely less than 250, and possibly significantly lower. Between October 2023 and Aug. 6, 2025, according to the World Health Organization, there have been 7,522 medical patients evacuated from Gaza, of whom 69 percent were children. Egypt took 3,995 patients, the United Arab Emirates took 1,387, with Qatar and Turkey taking several hundred each. (WHO only listed the top five destinations, which didn’t include the United States.) The bulk were trauma patients and patients with cancer, although some had ophthalmological disorders, congenital anomalies and cardiovascular disease.

No U.S. tax dollars are used to pay for Gazans’ medical treatment. Typically, U.S. hospitals will provide free care, and nonprofits like HEAL Palestine or The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund pay for any additional expenses.

ONLINE: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/21/opinion/gaza-injured-kids-hospitals-trump-loomer/

— The Boston Globe