South Africa says flight carrying Palestinians part of 'clear agenda' to clear out Gaza

South Africa has said it does not want to receive more flights carrying Palestinians because they are part of a “broader agenda” to clear out Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The remarks by Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola on Monday followed the unexpected arrival in Johannesburg last week of 153 Gazans who did not have departure stamps from Israel in their passports. Israel controls Gaza's borders and said the group was allowed to travel after receiving entry approval from South Africa.

“We are suspicious … about the circumstances surrounding the arrival of the plane and the passengers that were in the plane,” Mr Lamola said. “It does look like it represents a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine into many different parts of the world.

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“It's a clearly orchestrated operation because they are not only being sent to South Africa,” the minister added. “There are other countries where such flights have been sent.”

He did not say who South Africa believed had organised the chartered plane. However, his remarks came amid widespread accusations that Israel is attempting to push Palestinians out of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken about “voluntary” emigration. The country has embraced a pledge by US President Donald Trump to permanently empty Gaza of its two million people, although Mr Trump has since backed away from that plan.

Mr Lamola said “we do not want any further flights to come our way because this is a clear agenda to cleanse out the Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank”.

Last month another plane carrying 176 Palestinians arrived in South Africa.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said intelligence services will investigate who was behind last week's flight. It flew from Ramon Airport in southern Israel via a stopover in Kenya. After landing, the passengers were kept on board for 12 hours because they did not have departure stamps from Israel, South African border police said.

They were eventually permitted to disembark on a standard 90-day visa exemption after an NGO said it would provide them with accommodation. South Africa's Home Affairs Ministry said 130 entered South Africa, while the remaining 23 took onward flights to other destinations.

Cogat, the Israeli body that runs civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said the passengers had been cleared to leave Gaza “after Cogat received approval from a third country to receive them”. Israel later named that country as South Africa.

The body says it routinely assists with the departure of Gaza residents through Israel to receiving countries, including patients requiring medical treatment, dual citizens and their family members and those possessing visas to third countries.

More than 40,000 Gaza residents have left in this way since the beginning of the Gaza war, Israel says.

South African civic groups have alleged that a Jerusalem-based organisation called Al Majd organised the flight to South Africa and has ties with Israel. They offered no evidence for the claim.

The Palestinian embassy in South Africa said on Thursday that travel for the group “was arranged by an unregistered and misleading organisation that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza”.

Those responsible had “deceived families, collected money from them, and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner”, it added.

Gift of the Givers, the NGO that provided accommodation for the group in Johannesburg, told news agency AFP that the Palestinians on the flight had paid Al Majd around $2,000 per person for the trip.

“What we've been told is that they were promised some type of travel out of Gaza to some form of safety in a country that would welcome them,” representative Sarah Oosthuizen said.

Some of the passengers appeared to have been misled about their final destination, she added, with a few believing they were headed to Indonesia, Malaysia or India.