State Dept stops visas for Gaza residents

The State Department has halted issuing visitor visas to individuals who are from Gaza as the agency reviews the visa process.

"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 said in a post on social media.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration started to crack down on visa application vetting and introduced new processes, such as social media vetting for foreign students coming to the US, and checking for "indications of hostility" towards the United States. In May, Marco Rubio also announced that there would be visa restrictions on people "who are complicit in censoring Americans."

In some of the latest moves from the State Department on visa policy, the agency has implemented a $250 "visa integrity program" for travelers, where they pay the fee, but can be reimbursed after leaving the US at the appropriate time. Some fees for the travelers can go up to $15,000 if travelers come from countries with high overstay rates.

The restriction on visas for those in Gaza comes with the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas after the October 7 attacks in 2023, where Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 Israelis and took 251 Israelis hostage. The Trump administration has also been attempting to bring the conflict to an end, and has told Israel to "finish the job" with Hamas and that the terrorist organization "can't stay" in the region.

Per the New York Times, Israel believed that there were about 20 remaining hostages being held by Hamas that are alive as of early August.