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The move will stop, at least temporarily, travel for medical treatment, attending university, visiting relatives or conducting business.
Aug. 31, 2025, 4:23 p.m. ET
The Trump administration has enacted a sweeping suspension of approvals of almost all types of visitor visas for Palestinian passport holders, according to American officials.
The new policy goes beyond the restrictions announced by U.S. officials recently on visitor visas for Palestinians from Gaza. Last week, the State Department also said it would not issue visas to Palestinian officials to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York next month.
The more sweeping measures, laid out in an Aug. 18 cable sent by State Department headquarters to all U.S. embassies and consulates, would also prevent many Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Palestinian diaspora from entering the United States on various types of nonimmigrant visas, according to four U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The new measures affect visas for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives and business travel, at least temporarily.
It was not clear what prompted the visa curbs, but they follow declarations by a number of U.S. allies that they plan to recognize a Palestinian state in the coming weeks. Some American officials have strongly opposed this push for recognition, which Israel has condemned.
The United States has been Israel’s staunchest supporter throughout its nearly two-year-old war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, even as international criticism has steadily mounted over the conduct of the Israeli military campaign and the humanitarian suffering it has caused.
