- Title: Israel to include Gaza Americans in U.S. visa waiver pilot next month
- Date: 7th August 2023
- Summary: BEIT HANOUN, GAZA (AUGUST 7, 2023) (REUTERS) (MUTE) DRONE VIEW OF PEOPLE AT BEIT HANOUN (EREZ) CROSSING GAZA CITY, GAZA (AUGUST 7, 2023) (REUTERS) SOUVENIR WITH PAINTED PALESTINIAN FLAG READING (Arabic): "WE ARE RETURNING, MY COUNTRY." VIRGINIA-BASED PALESTINIAN AMERICAN FROM GAZA, HANI AL-MADHOUN, LOOKING AT BLACK AND WHITE KEFFIYEH AT SHOP BLACK AND WHITE KEFFIYEH VARIOU
- Embargoed: 21st August 2023 13:38
- Keywords: Gaza Americans Israel Palestinians U.S Visa program
- Location: BEIT HANOUN AND GAZA CITY, GAZA
- City: BEIT HANOUN AND GAZA CITY, GAZA
- Country: Palestinian Occupied Territory
- Topics: Middle East,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001283707082023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Israel plans to ease travel for Palestinian Americans from the blockaded Gaza Strip next month as part of preparations for Israelis to be able to enter the United States without visas, an Israeli official said on Monday (August 7).
Hani Almadhoun, a Virginia-based Palestinian American who has family in Gaza, welcomed the news and said he and friends planned to fly into Tel Aviv on September 15 to test the measures.
As a condition for its accession to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program (VWP), Israel has since July 20 loosened access through its borders, and in and out of the occupied West Bank, for Palestinian Americans in what the allies deem a pilot period.
Gaza, whose governing Islamist Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Israel and the United States, has so far not been included. That has stirred protests by Palestinian Americans and calls from Washington for a change in practice.
Gil Bringer, Israel's VWP project manager, put the number of Palestinian Americans living in Gaza at between 100 and 130 and said that, as part of the pilot, they can travel by special shuttle bus to the West Bank, cross into Jordan and continue from there to other foreign destinations on family visits.
By September 15, those of them who satisfy Israel's security criteria will be able to enter it on "B2" tourist visas and fly out of its main Ben Gurion Airport, Bringer told Reuters.
(Production: Arafat Barbakh, Fadi Shana,Mohammed Salem ) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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