Palestinians fleeing Gaza detained on aircraft at South Africa airport for hours

[ad_1] Some 160 Palestinians fleeing Gaza had been stranded on their aircraft at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo Airport for 12 hours on Thursday earlier than ultimately being allowed entry by South African Authorities.

Footage circulating on social media confirmed a Palestinian lady on the aircraft in tears over the scenario.

After “two straight days of hardship and toil, between buses and planes, we obtained a really unhappy shock,” she mentioned. “The state is unable to obtain us simply because we’re individuals coming from a warfare.”

“My house is gone. I don’t have wherever to go, any shelter. The place will we go? Sufficient,” she cried, including: “Why us?”

In response to Haaretz, the group left Gaza early Wednesday morning, by way of the Strip’s southern Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, following Israeli vetting.

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By signing up, you comply with the terms Members of the group had been then taken by bus to Israel’s Ramon Airport, close to Eilat, the place they boarded a chartered aircraft to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and from there boarded the chartered flight to Johannesburg.

South Africa will not let refugees from Gaza go away the aircraft at Johannesburg airport tarmac. The Gazans have uploaded clips of their households stranded contained in the aircraft. pic.twitter.com/9OaViti79j

— Ahmed Quraishi (@_AhmedQuraishi) November 13, 2025

An earlier group departing Gaza made an equivalent journey some two weeks in the past and disembarked in Johannesburg with out incident, Haaretz mentioned. Each journeys had been organized by an hitherto unknown group referred to as Al-Majd, which has obtained many requests from Gazans who need to go away the Strip, the report mentioned.

The incident sparked widespread criticism of South Africa on social media because the nation, which has led the allegations of genocide towards Israel, was seen as unwilling to really help Palestinians.

Imtiaz Sooliman, a South African activist who has been serving to the Gazans, blamed Israel, saying that it had despatched the aircraft with out coordinating with South Africa and had did not put exit stamps on passports. It was unclear from Sooliman’s account how the Palestinians would have traveled to and from Kenya.

The South African Zionist Federation on Friday referred to as Sooliman’s allegation a “calculated distortion weaponized to inflame outrage over details,” given Israel makes use of digital visas as an alternative of bodily passport stamps.

Israel’s Coordinator of Authorities Actions within the Territories (COGAT), which oversees the circulate of individuals and items to and from Gaza, additionally informed Haaretz that the Palestinians had obtained visas from South Africa forward of time. COGAT was additionally cited by the newspaper as saying that, as a rule, Israel all the time makes positive that there's a nation that can settle for Gazans departing the Strip.

Talking to the South African Broadcasting Company on Thursday, Sooliman, founding father of South African NGO Reward of the Givers, mentioned the Gazans stranded on the airport in Johannesburg included a pregnant lady and a number of other kids, and that they had been left hungry on a poorly stored aircraft with insufficient loos, and had been “actually distraught coming from two years of genocide.”

Israel has vehemently rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza and accused Hamas of utilizing Gazans as human shields.

BREAKING NEWS | About 160 Palestinian refugees have landed at OR Tambo Worldwide Airport this morning. The Reward of the Givers' Imtiaz Sooliman says their passports haven't got stamps, and amongst them are kids and pregnant ladies. pic.twitter.com/X68TXjGpgn

— SABC Information (@SABCNews) November 13, 2025

In response to Sooliman, the sooner flight of Gazans fleeing to South Africa carried 176 individuals. He mentioned his and different support teams attended to the Gazans’ wants upon studying of their arrival in Johannesburg on October 28.

“These individuals had been displaced. They didn’t know the place to go. They'd no contact numbers, no telephone numbers,” mentioned Sooliman.

He added that the primary group’s family knowledgeable his group on Wednesday {that a} second group was scheduled to reach the following day.

“No person knew about that aircraft,” he mentioned. “It appears… Israel is voluntarily eradicating individuals from Gaza — , that is ethnic cleaning at its finest — and taking away their items, their hygiene packs, their meals, sending them onto chartered planes.”

Sooliman urged authorities to “examine how individuals are approaching chartered planes with out stamps. Israel didn't stamp the passports.” Consequently, he mentioned, South African border management officers “couldn’t permit them to get off the aircraft, just because they had been following guidelines” by not letting passengers alight within the nation with out legitimate journey paperwork.

Following Sooliman’s private enchantment to South Africa’s Worldwide Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola and to the ministry’s director-general Zane Dangor, the Gazans had been let off the aircraft hours after touchdown, the activist mentioned.

“Lots of people have already provided meals, clothes and medical help” for the Gazans who arrived in South Africa on Thursday, mentioned Sooliman.

A Palestinian man walks previous an unexploded missile within the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza Metropolis on November 12, 2025. (Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP) “We’re actually grateful for South Africans, grateful for the federal government for making this occur, in step with our coverage” of encouraging sanctions towards Israel and pursuing genocide expenses towards the nation on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, mentioned Sooliman.

Accusing Sooliman of “attacking Israel for South Africa’s personal procedures,” the South African Zionist Federation lambasted the activist’s “try to strain Dwelling Affairs, demanding entry for the group as if he had been a shadow minister.”

“South Africa is ruled by the rule of legislation, not by the calls for of personal organizations. No NGO, no matter its humanitarian picture, has veto energy over border management or immigration statutes,” mentioned the federation.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned the nation will “clearly want to have a look at the origins (of the Palestinians’ journey), the place it began, the rationale why they’ve been introduced right here.”

“Ordinarily, we'd have mentioned they need to return as a result of they didn’t have any documentation. However…out of compassion, and since they're a folks that we as South Africa have raised our fingers to help, we felt that we must always settle for them,” he informed reporters in Soweto, the place he was overseeing a clean-up for subsequent week’s G20 summit.

Humanitarian support enters Gaza by way of the Kerem Shalom Crossing with Israel, in Khan Younis, within the southern Gaza Strip, November 2, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) Ramaphosa added that South African intelligence companies, the Dwelling Affairs and the Division of Worldwide Relations had assessed the group.

“We're going to do a correct analysis and see what the longer term portends. We are going to make an announcement in order that the individuals of South Africa know exactly what is occurring.”

The overseas ministries of Israel and South Africa didn't instantly reply to requests for remark, Haaretz mentioned.

A safety supply cited by the newspaper mentioned Israel has made the departure of Gazans simpler, and permitted over 95 % of requests to go away the Strip, ever since US President Donald Trump, in February, offered a plan to oust Gaza’s residents and rebuild the Strip as a Mediterranean Riviera.

Trump appeared to again away from that plan within the comprehensive Gaza ceasefire plan he offered in September, which states: “Nobody will likely be pressured to go away Gaza, and those that want to go away will likely be free to take action and free to return. We are going to encourage individuals to remain and provide them the chance to construct a greater Gaza.”

It’s unclear how many individuals have left the devastated Strip for the reason that warfare, sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas bloodbath in southern Israel, although Hebrew media experiences have positioned the quantity at round 38,000.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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