A chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians from war-torn Gaza, many of whom did not have the necessary travel documents, landed at an airport near Johannesburg on Thursday morning, leaving South African authorities “blindsided”.
After nearly 12 hours of scrambling, the group was allowed to disembark under the care of a local charity.
More details have emerged about a program run by Al-Majid Europe, which activists say is leading to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
The Palestinian passengers are demanding large compensation payments from the group, which says on its website that it is coordinating their “evacuation from the conflict area.”
Here’s everything we know so far about the group’s move and the person behind Al Majid Europe.
What happened in South Africa?
The plane carrying the passengers remained on the tarmac for nearly 12 hours while South African authorities tried to determine why they did not have exit stamps or slips when leaving Gaza, South African Border Services officials said.
They were also unsure when immigration officials asked them where they would stay and how long they planned to stay in South Africa.
The charity Gift of the Givers offered to accommodate them, and the government allowed them to leave the plane.
Officials said 23 Palestinians had flown to other countries, but gave no further details.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday: “These are people from Gaza who were somehow mysteriously put on a plane passing through Nairobi and came here.”
He added that “they do appear to be being driven out” from Gaza. South African intelligence services are investigating the incident.
What company flew them to South Africa?
Al-Majid Europe, which is accused of acting in conjunction with Israeli authorities, is behind the flight.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday that the organization is headed by Tomer Janal Lind, a dual Israeli-Estonian citizen. The paper reported that Lindh had facilitated several similar flights, working with Israeli military units responsible for deporting Palestinians from Gaza.
The unit, named the Voluntary Settlement Authority, was established in early 2025 under the Israeli Ministry of Defense to enact policies to expel Palestinians from their homeland.
Haaretz newspaper reported that Rind did not deny arranging flights for Palestinians, but refused to divulge further information.
“This is no coincidence,” said Orbou El Abed, associate professor of international migration and refugee studies at Birzeit University in Ramallah.
“This is part of a long colonial pattern, a very systematic dispossession of indigenous Palestinians that has been perpetuated by Zionist Israelis, who are using a multipronged approach to displace indigenous peoples from this land,” she told Al Jazeera.
According to Al Majid Europe’s website, the company was founded in Germany in 2010 and its homepage displays a pop-up warning about individuals impersonating their agents and sharing the phone numbers of their “authorized representatives.”
However, the site itself has no address or phone number, only the location of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem. However, Al Jazeera could not find an office there.
The website’s domain, almajdeurope.org, was only registered in February of this year, but several links on the site lead nowhere. The email listed info@almajdeurope.org returns an automatic message saying it does not exist.
Namecheap, which registered this domain, has been cited in several cybersecurity reports regarding online fraud due to its low cost and easy sign-up process.
Al Jazeera also found that many people were told to pay by bank transfer to their personal accounts rather than to an organization.
Is Al Majid Europe doing what it says it will do?
Among the links that work is a page with four “impact stories.”
One post about “Mona”, a 29-year-old from Aleppo, Syria, is dated March 22, 2023, even though the website was registered just 10 months ago.
The story, written in Mona’s voice, expresses her gratitude to Mr. Almajid for moving her and her mother to a “safe place” when they felt unsafe in Lebanon, where they had fled in 2013.
But the photo, taken by journalist Madeleine Edwards in Tripoli, Lebanon, in December 2024 for Middle East Eye, shows Abeer Khayat, then 33.
The online form states: “Limited to Gaza residents currently in the Gaza Strip!”
“Do you want to travel and start a new life? We are here to help you!”
How did people end up getting on that plane?
Palestinian families, including pregnant women, boarded the plane without knowing their final destination and paid Almajid between $1,400 and $2,000 each (the same amount for children and adults).
Loai Abu Saif, who was on the flight with his wife and children, told Al Jazeera on Friday that he learned about al-Majid through a social media ad.
Saif said he didn’t know when he would leave Gaza until the day before, when passengers were told they could only bring small bags, mobile phones and cash.
They were taken by bus from Rafah in southern Gaza to the Karem Abu Salem crossing (known in Israel as Kerem Shalom), where they were inspected and transferred to Israel’s Ramon airport without Israeli authorities stamping their travel documents.
“The applicant must have a (young) family. (Then) the names will be sent to a security check. Once that is done and the family is approved, you will be asked to pay,” said another official interviewed by Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
“Pre-arrangements had been made with the Israeli military for the bus to enter Rafah,” he said. “The process was just routine.”
The group departed from Ramon on a Romanian plane, flew through Nairobi, Kenya, and landed in Johannesburg.
Have there been similar flights before?
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that there was a similar flight on May 27th. Approximately 57 Palestinians boarded a bus from Gaza and headed to Ramon Airport via the Karem Abu Salem crossing.
The group then boarded a chartered flight in Romania operated by Frai Lili, Haaretz reported. The plane headed to Budapest and from there to Indonesia and Malaysia.
Al Majid’s website also claims to have facilitated the travel of “a group of doctors working in hospitals in the Gaza Strip” who flew to Indonesia “for further research and advanced medical training.” However, this post is dated April 28, 2024.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the post and the group’s photo within it.
Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman, who claims Al Majid is one of the “Israeli front organizations”, told The Associated Press that this was the second plane to arrive in South Africa.
Another plane carrying more than 170 Palestinians arrived on October 28, but the identity of the flight was not announced by authorities.
What did Palestine say?
The Palestinian embassy in South Africa said in a statement that the flight was arranged by “an unregistered and misleading organization that took advantage of the tragic humanitarian situation of the people of the Gaza Strip, defrauded families, collected money and arranged the trip in an irregular and irresponsible manner.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority warned Palestinians, especially those in the Gaza Strip, of networks seeking to remove them from their homes in line with Israeli interests.
