The Cradle
NOV 18, 2025

South Africa has announced a probe into the mysterious arrival of Palestinians to the country last week, warning of an Israeli “agenda” to “cleanse” the Gaza Strip by displacing its residents.

“We are suspicious, as the South African government, about the circumstances of the arrival of the plane and the passengers that were on the plane,” said Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola. 

“This matter is a subject of investigation,” he added. “It must be thoroughly investigated, and the South African public will know at some point. It is an issue of concern to us. It does look like it represents a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world.”

“It is a clearly orchestrated operation,” he went on to say, adding that “There are other countries” where Palestinians have been sent, not just South Africa. He also said that Pretoria does not want any more of these flights to arrive. 

“We do not want any further flights to come our way because this is a clear agenda to cleanse out Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank and those areas, which South Africa is against.”

The Palestinians arrived in South Africa last week. They boarded a flight to Nairobi without knowing where they were going, and afterwards got on a flight operated by South African airline LIFT – landing in Johannesburg on Thursday morning.

South African authorities delayed their disembarkation for over 12 hours, saying the passengers lacked proper documentation or return tickets and had not had their passports stamped upon leaving Israel. 

Following the 12-hour investigation during which the Palestinians were held on board, they were eventually allowed into the country.

South African authorities said 30 of them ended up flying elsewhere, so 123 were allowed into the country following intervention from a local charity. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said they were let in out of “empathy and compassion.”

According to a 16 November investigation by Haaretz newspaper, a “shadowy” group called Al-Majd Europe – run by an Israeli and claiming to be a humanitarian organization – has facilitated the departure of scores of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. 

On its website, the Al-Majd Europe group says it is a humanitarian organization “providing aid and rescue efforts to Muslim communities in conflict and war zones.”

It claims it was founded in Germany in 2010 and says it has offices in occupied East Jerusalem. However, according to Haaretz, the organization is “registered in neither place.”

The report says Palestinians are being sold seats on chartered flights to countries such as South Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia – for about $2,000. It adds that the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Voluntary Migration Directorate “referred the organization Al-Majd to coordinate Palestinians’ departures with the Israeli army's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).”

Since May 2025, over 350 Palestinians have departed Gaza via Al-Majd Europe group. 

The report highlighted that the secrecy surrounding the flights has raised concerns among human rights groups, which say it could be part of an Israeli effort to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians who arrived in South Africa last week had no documentation with them. 

The Palestinian Embassy in South Africa said their departure from Gaza was “an unregistered and misleading organization that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza, deceived families, collected money from them, and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner.”

“This entity later attempted to disown any responsibility once complications arose,” it went on to say, warning residents of Gaza, “to avoid falling prey to human trafficking networks, blood merchants, and displacement agents.”

Pretoria has been a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, opening a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in late 2023.