Doctor Deported to Lebanon Had Photos ‘Sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on Phone, US Says

A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
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Doctor Deported to Lebanon Had Photos ‘Sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on Phone, US Says

A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
A general view of The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Massachusetts, US, July 27, 2021. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo

US authorities on Monday said they deported a Rhode Island doctor to Lebanon last week after discovering "sympathetic photos and videos" of the former longtime leader of Hezbollah and its fighters in her cell phone's deleted items folder.

Alawieh had also told agents that while in Lebanon she attended the funeral last month of Hezbollah's slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, whom she supported from a "religious perspective" as a Shiite.

The US Department of Justice provided those details as it sought to assure a federal judge in Boston that US Customs and Border Protection did not willfully disobey an order he issued on Friday that should have halted Dr. Rasha Alawieh's immediate removal.

The 34-year-old Lebanese citizen, who held an H-1B visa, was detained on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston after returning from a trip to Lebanon to see family. Her cousin then filed a lawsuit seeking to halt her deportation.

In its first public explanation for her removal, the Justice Department said Alawieh, a kidney specialist and assistant professor at Brown University, was denied re-entry to the United States based on what CBP found on her phone and statements she made during an airport interview.

"It's a purely religious thing," she said about the funeral, according to a transcript of that interview reviewed by Reuters. "He's a very big figure in our community. For me it's not political."

Western governments including the United States designate Hezbollah a terrorist group. The Lebanese armed group is part of the "Axis of Resistance", an alliance of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East that also includes the Palestinian movement Hamas, which sparked the Gaza war by attacking Israel almost a year ago on Oct. 7.

Based on those statements and the discovery of photos on her phone of Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, the Justice Department said CBP concluded "her true intentions in the United States could not be determined."

Alawieh and a lawyer for her cousin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In Monday's filing, the Justice Department also defended CBP officials against claims by the cousin's legal team that Alawieh was flown out of the country on Friday evening in violation of an order issued by US District Judge Leo Sorokin that day.

The judge had issued an order barring Alawieh's removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours' notice. Yet she was put onto a flight to France that night and is now back in Lebanon.

The judge on Sunday had directed the government to address "serious allegations" that his order was willfully violated ahead of a hearing that had been scheduled for Monday.

That hearing was canceled on Monday at the request of the cousin's lone remaining attorney, after lawyers at the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer representing her pro bono withdrew, citing "further diligence" about the quickly-moving case.

A lawyer with that firm said she had gone to the airport on Friday and shown a CBP officer a copy of Sorokin's order on her laptop before Alawieh's Air France flight departed, and another CBP official in a declaration on Monday said he was made aware that occurred before taking Alawieh to the boarding area.

But the Justice Department said the notification needed to be received through standard channels and be received by the agency's legal counsel for their review and guidance, which did not happen.

"CBP takes court orders seriously and strives to always abide by a court order," Justice Department attorneys wrote.

The Justice Department's filing was later sealed by Sorokin at the request of a lawyer for the cousin. Reuters reviewed it from a public terminal in the courthouse before access was further restricted.



Pope Leo Appeals for Israel to Allow Humanitarian Aid in Gaza 

Pope Leo XIV blesses the crowd at the end of his first weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square in The Vatican on May 21, 2025. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV blesses the crowd at the end of his first weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square in The Vatican on May 21, 2025. (AFP)
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Pope Leo Appeals for Israel to Allow Humanitarian Aid in Gaza 

Pope Leo XIV blesses the crowd at the end of his first weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square in The Vatican on May 21, 2025. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV blesses the crowd at the end of his first weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square in The Vatican on May 21, 2025. (AFP)

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday appealed for Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, calling the situation in the Palestinian enclave "yet more worrying and saddening".

"I renew my fervent appeal to allow for the entry of fair humanitarian help and to bring to an end the hostilities, the devastating price of which is paid by children, the elderly and the sick," the pope said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected the leader of the Catholic Church on May 8 to succeed the late Pope Francis. He has mentioned the situation in Gaza several times in the first weeks of his papacy.

In his first Sunday message on May 11, the new pope called for an immediate ceasefire and for the release of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Israel said on Monday that it would allow aid to enter Gaza after an 11-week blockade on the enclave, but the United Nations said no help had been distributed as of Tuesday.

Leo's appeal comes a day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his government had paused free trade talks with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador to the UK over the situation in Gaza.

Israel says it plans to intensify military operations against Hamas and to control the whole of Gaza, which has been devastated by an Israeli air and ground war since Hamas' cross-border attack on Israeli communities in October 2023.

Israel has said its blockade is aimed in part at preventing Palestinian gunmen from diverting and seizing aid supplies. Hamas has denied doing so.