A 20-year-old Palestinian woman who was airlifted from Gaza to a hospital in Italy in a state of severe emaciation to receive treatment has died, the hospital announced on Saturday. The young woman, identified in Italian reports as Marah Abu Zuhri, arrived in Pisa on a humanitarian flight organized by the Italian government on Wednesday night. The hospital stated that her health condition was “very complicated” and she was severely emaciated, a condition that occurs when a person suffers significant weight loss and muscle wasting. On Friday, after undergoing tests and starting treatment, she died following a sudden respiratory crisis and cardiac arrest. The United Nations warns that all residents of the Gaza Strip are threatened by famine, while Israel denies this. The U.S. State Department announced it will suspend issuing medical visas to Palestinians from Gaza after criticism from a far-right influencer supportive of President Donald Trump.

The State Department said in a statement, “All visitor visas for people coming from Gaza are temporarily suspended pending a comprehensive and thorough review of the process and procedures used in recent days to grant a small number of temporary humanitarian medical visas.” This came after posts on social media by far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who has previously made racist statements and promoted conspiracy theories. Loomer posted a video on the X platform on Friday claiming it showed “Palestinians claiming to be refugees from Gaza arriving in the United States via San Francisco and Houston… this month.”