Flight carrying 153 Palestinians to South Africa triggers accusations that Israel, via Al-Majd Europe, engineered scheme to remove Palestinians from Gaza

By Azad Essa
Published date: 16 November 2025 10:30 GMT
Last update: ~0830 ET

On Thursday, a plane carrying 153 Palestinians from Gaza landed at South Africa’s OR Tambo International Airport, but the plane was held on the tarmac for around 12 hours, with passengers not allowed to disembark - triggering confusion and anger against local authorities.

Within hours, however, activists and South African authorities discovered several irregularities in the way the Palestinians’ travel had been organised by a body called Al-Majd Europe.

Activists found that not only had the South African government been unaware of their arrival, but the evacuees themselves were not in possession of any documentation or paperwork to assist with their processing in the country.