{"id":153607,"date":"2025-08-17T17:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153607\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T17:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:11:11","slug":"as-one-boy-heals-in-chicago-us-halts-medical-care-visas-for-gazans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153607\/","title":{"rendered":"As one boy heals in Chicago, US halts medical care visas for Gazans"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a farm in the south suburbs,\u00a0upbeat Arabic music swept across the land as more than a dozen Palestinian children \u2014 many with prosthetic limbs or in wheelchairs \u2014 and their families danced and moved to the music in the center of a raised platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the children, Khalil Abu Shaban, traveled in a circle using his wheelchair and periodically sang into a microphone as the dozens who attended the Saturday celebration at Arab Chicago Farm in Frankfort excitedly clapped for him.<\/p>\n

Abu Shaban, 14, arrived in Chicago about a year ago<\/a> with his mom and sister to receive medical care at Shriners Children\u2019s specialty hospital after losing both his legs in a bombing in Gaza. He said he\u2019s working on getting his final prosthetics and attends physical therapy a few times a week. He\u2019s also preparing to start 9th grade and has enjoyed swimming and fishing while in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m waiting on my final prosthetic so I can actually practice on that,\u201d Abu Shaban said via an interpreter. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying my time here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organizers said the fundraiser, put on by Ohio-based nonprofit HEAL Palestine, hoped the event could introduce community members to about a dozen children \u2014 including Abu Shaban \u2014 who, with the group\u2019s help, evacuated the war in Gaza for medical care in the United States. HEAL Palestine coordinates travel for the injured children and their families and assists them in applying for visas to the U.S.<\/p>\n

But as Abu Shaban and others in Frankfort enjoyed their day on Saturday, President Donald Trump\u2019s State Department announced<\/a> that same day it was stopping all visitor visas for people from Gaza, a move that places HEAL Palestine\u2019s work at risk, the group\u2019s executive director Steve Sosebee said. The State Department said it will start conducting a \u201cfull and thorough review of the process and procedures\u201d used to issue a \u201csmall number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas\u201d in recent days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very arbitrary measure that doesn\u2019t take into consideration that these kids are coming for treatments in private hospitals,\u201d Sosebee said, adding it\u2019s now \u201cimpossible\u201d to bring more injured kids to the U.S. \u201cThey\u2019re not taking government money. We\u2019re not a government-sponsored taxpayer organization, so we\u2019re privately funded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason for the government to put this ban. These are just injured children. They\u2019re not political kids. They\u2019re not security threats,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey\u2019re just innocent children who need medical care that they can\u2019t get back home. It\u2019s a very unfortunate measure and we hope it\u2019s reversed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GroupsGroups of people head towards the “HEAL on the Farm” event at the Arab Chicago Farm on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Frankfort. (Vincent D. Johnson\/for the Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The State Department announcement comes after Laura Loomer, a far-right, pro-Israel government activist and Trump ally<\/a> known for her racist posts, claimed with no evidence on social media<\/a> that HEAL Palestine is \u201cmass importing GAZANS into the US under the false claim of \u2018humanitarian aid.\u2019\u201d She asked the Trump administration to \u201cshut down this abomination ASAP before a family member of one of these GAZANS goes rogue and kills Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loomer celebrated the State Department\u2019s decision Saturday, calling it \u201cfantastic news\u201d and asking the president to add people from Gaza to a travel ban.<\/p>\n

The State Department\u2019s move also followed HEAL Palestine\u2019s announcement<\/a> earlier this month that 11 critically injured children, along with their caregivers and siblings, had arrived in the U.S. HEAL Palestine called it the \u201clargest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza\u201d and said some of the children, who will stay in various cities across the country, had lost limbs and all were \u201cseverely malnourished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nihad Awad, the national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also condemned the State Department\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlocking Palestinian children injured by American weapons from coming to America for medical treatment is the latest sign that the intentional cruelty of President Trump\u2019s \u2018Israel First\u2019 administration knows no bounds,\u201d Awad said in a statement.<\/p>\n

More than 60,000 people have died in Gaza and a mass humanitarian catastrophe continues, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. The Hamas-led attack in 2023 killed around 1,200 people in Israel.<\/p>\n

Sosebee said since the war in Gaza began the organization has evacuated 148 people, including 63 children. Six of the children stayed with host families in the Chicago area. <\/strong>There are 44 children who remain in the U.S., with the rest heading to Egypt to continue receiving treatment, Sosebee said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s thousands (of children) with all kinds of injuries and medical conditions that can\u2019t be treated in Gaza. The scale is what\u2019s so overwhelming,\u201d Sosebee said. \u201cWe hope that we\u2019ll be able to get more kids treated because they deserve it. All of the politics surrounding this issue makes it very difficult.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abu Shaban and his family were forced to flee northern Gaza to the south, where he lived in a displacement camp, Sosebee previously said<\/a>. Abu Shaban was later injured in a bombing near a barber shop he was visiting, and, after medical treatment in Egypt, he came to Chicago to learn to walk again with prosthetics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sosebee said Abu Shaban has a high amputation, which makes it difficult to get a prosthetic. He won\u2019t have the kind of mobility other kids have with prosthetic limbs, he said, but they\u2019re \u201ctrying to get him the best care possible,\u201d including mental health support. Saturday\u2019s celebration, which also featured food, painting and calligraphy, was aimed at helping Abu Shaban and other kids feel connected to humanity, Sosebee said.<\/p>\n

At the event\u2019s art station, Manar Ihmud, a volunteer and director of IQ Tutoring Center in Palos Heights, set up painting, bookmark making, jewelry making and a sticker station \u2014 crafts that don\u2019t have loud noises, she said. Kids picked their favorite paint colors and colored with markers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing Palestinian myself, this is a humanity cause,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is no longer just a Palestinian cause or just a Middle Eastern cause. This is for everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed reporting.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 17, 2025 at 11:18 AM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a farm in the south suburbs,\u00a0upbeat Arabic music swept across the land as more than a dozen…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,70,5386,1818,42478,89846],"class_list":{"0":"post-153607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-gaza","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-state-department","13":"tag-visitor-visas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}