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Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked visas for many Palestinian authorities and officials of the Palestinian Liberation Agency prior to the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, where the group was previously represented.
The State Department said in a statement Friday that Rubio also ordered that he refused several new visa applications from Palestinian officials.
The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration took to target Palestinians with visa restrictions, coming on the same day that Israeli forces declared Gaza city a combat zone.
The State Department has also suspended a program that allowed Palestinian children injured from Gaza to come to the US for treatment after social media protests by some conservatives.
The State Department did not specify how many visas were revoked or how many applications were denied. The department did not respond immediately to more detailed requests.
It was not immediately clear whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be affected.
The agency’s statement said representatives assigned to the mission of the Palestinian authorities at the United Nations will be granted exemptions under a US host country contract with the United Nations so that they can continue their New York-based operations.
“It is in the national security interest to hold PLO and PA accountable for not following their commitments and undermining the outlook for peace,” the statement said.
“Before PLO and PA are considered partners of peace, they must consistently reject terrorism, including the October 7th massacre, and end the inciting terrorism in education, as required by US law and promised by the PLO.”
The United Nations Palestinian ambassador, Riyadh Mansour, told reporters on Friday that he had just learned of Rubio’s decision and was evaluating its impact.
“We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegations, and we will respond accordingly,” he said.
Mansoor said Abbas was leading the delegation to the UN meeting next month and was expected to deal with the general assembly as he has done over the years.
He was also expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on September 22nd on solutions for the two states.
At the UN, 147 members of the organization recognize Palestine as a country, and the General Assembly has been in the state of non-member observers since 2012.
Additional sources •AP