Behind the scenes of the mysterious arrival of planeloads of Palestinians into SA

Around 6 November, the rumours started to circulate on civil society WhatsApp groups.

A planeload of Palestinians from Gaza on a charter flight had arrived in South Africa under mysterious circumstances. Just seven days of accommodation had been booked for them, at AirBnBs and hotels around Johannesburg. Thereafter, they were effectively abandoned.

On 11 November, several NGOs, led by Gift of the Givers, went public on the matter.

“On 28 October 2025, 176 Palestinian refugees who had fled the Israeli genocide in Gaza — mostly family units of mothers, fathers and children — were relocated to South Africa in a manner that raised serious concern about Israeli involvement,” read the statement.

“In an act of calculated deprivation, Israeli officials forced everyone in the group to abandon their bags, leaving 176 refugees without toiletries, medicines, or clothing except what they were wearing.”

Thereafter, civil society organisations and “ordinary South Africans” came together to provide them with clothing, toiletries, accommodation and other support.

In interviews with officials from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), who wished to remain anonymous, Daily Maverick established that Dirco was not made aware of the first flight of Palestinians in advance, but was tipped off after the fact.

South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) was aware of it, however, because it was provided with the standard passenger manifest in advance. The BMA appears to have let the first flight of passengers in without question, on standard 90-day tourist visa exemptions, since South Africa is one of the countries that permits Palestinians to do this.

They subsequently “disappeared into the country”, to quote a Dirco official.

The Afro-Middle East Centre’s Na’eem Jeenah told Daily Maverick that the passengers on the first flight had no idea where they were being taken, but had paid money to a shadowy organisation called Al-Majd to escape Gaza.

Asked about the identity of the passengers, Jeenah had little information.

“Seemingly not all of them know each other,” Jeenah said, but most appeared to be professionals and business people.

He said that none of them was willing to be interviewed — one of the reasons Daily Maverick decided not to publish at the time until more information was known.

The second flight 

The South African government then learnt through intelligence that a second chartered flight of Palestinians was scheduled to arrive on Sunday, 9 November, but this was subsequently changed to Friday, 14 November.

Given the fact that rumours were already swirling among activists about possible Israeli involvement, and the possibility that the Palestinians may not have arrived voluntarily, the decision was made that when the plane landed, passengers needed to be interviewed and the circumstances of the flight established.

Officials told Daily Maverick that it was also necessary to establish whether the passengers were Hamas leaders, which would pose major security issues for South Africa.

It was for these reasons that BMA agents boarded the plane when it arrived at OR Tambo airport on Friday morning. The rationale given publicly — that it was necessary to detain them because they did not have exit stamps from Israel in their passports — seems to have been a red herring, given that Israel does not appear to issue these stamps on exit.

What followed was hours of something close to chaos. Activists were made aware that the passengers were not being permitted to disembark, and videos circulated of the passengers being held on the plane.

Behind the scenes, however, those who could authorise the passengers to disembark were largely unavailable. Members of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster, including Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, were cloistered in an all-day meeting. Dirco Minister Ronald Lamola was on a plane from Canada.

Home Affairs officials were reluctant to let the passengers pass through customs and immigration, Daily Maverick understands, because they had no accommodation booked and seemingly nowhere to go.

Gift of the Givers’ Sarah Oosthuizen told Daily Maverick it appeared that some had been misled by Al-Majd into believing that their final destination was India: Daily Maverick has seen the records of accommodation booked by one family in Mumbai.

Adding to the confusion was a language barrier, and the fact that many of the passengers initially seemed to misunderstand the concept of “asylum” when asked by the BMA if they wished to apply for it.

There appeared to be concern from some that if they said they wished to seek asylum, they would be forced to stay in South Africa for life, whereas some had onward flights booked that evening for Canada and Australia.

In an attempt to resolve the impasse, Gift of the Givers’ Imtiaz Sooliman volunteered to essentially sign surety for the whole plane — meaning that Gift of the Givers committed to supplying the passengers with accommodation and humanitarian assistance.

But authorities continued to dither, doubtless also aware of the potential public reaction in a country with very vocally xenophobic factions.

Daily Maverick understands that the SA Police Service gave an instruction for the flight to return to its country of origin, but minutes before the plane was due to take off, President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered that the Palestinians must be allowed into South Africa. At this stage, activists had mobilised supporters to gather at OR Tambo to welcome them in.

On Friday night, Schreiber said that none of the Palestinians had applied for asylum.

In an apparent reference to their lack of accommodation, he said: “Once satisfied that the absence of certain elements from their itinerary would not leave them destitute in South Africa in the absence of any asylum claims, the travellers were granted entry into South Africa on the standard 90-day visa exemption, subject to compliance with the standard conditions.”

Many questions remain 

Oosthuizen told Daily Maverick that the second flight’s passengers, like the first, had been stripped of most of their possessions by Israeli authorities before boarding their plane. They appear to have paid around $2,000 each to Al-Majd for their passage out of Gaza.

The major question now being investigated is whether Al-Majd is simply a predatory business profiting off people’s desperation to flee Gaza, or whether something more sinister is at play involving the Israeli government and a calculated attempt to depopulate Gaza.

City Press on Sunday reported the suspicion (link behind a paywall) that the flight was designed to arrive during the G20 Summit, when the world’s eyes would be on South Africa, to give the government no choice but to accept the Palestinians or face charges of hypocrisy due to the official pro-Palestinian foreign policy position.

Al Jazeera has reported that Al-Majd works in close collaboration with the Israeli army, which may be facilitating what is otherwise a difficult process for Palestinians to leave Gaza.

Ordinary South Africans, meanwhile, appear to be divided over the issue on social media — with some applauding the South African government for its compassion, while others argue that Pretoria should not be complying with Israel’s depopulation ambitions.

The EFF deputy secretary-general, Leigh-Ann Mathys, accused the government of double standards, posting on X that Sudanese refugees in the same situation would never have “gotten clearance to land in SA”.

Conspiracy theories are abounding. Even among those who support the Palestinian cause, questions are being asked about why these particular Palestinians were permitted to leave Gaza, with speculation — for which there is no evidence — about whether the passengers were collaborating with the Israeli regime.

Daily Maverick will continue to investigate. DM