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South Africa says it does not want to accept any more charter flights carrying Palestinians, days after the arrival of 153 passengers from Gaza sparked controversy.
Many aspects of their arrival remain unclear and controversial.
Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said on Monday the flight was part of a “clear agenda to clear Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank”.
Israeli authorities have yet to respond to the accusation. However, they said South Africa had previously agreed to receive the 153 Palestinians.
The BBC has asked South African authorities for comment.
The Palestinian embassy in South Africa said the group left Ramon Airport in Israel and flew to the country via the Kenyan capital Nairobi “without any prior notification or coordination.”
“An unregistered and misleading organization” took advantage of the plight of Gaza citizens by “defrauding families, charging them money and facilitating their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner,” the report said.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry went on to say through the embassy that it was working with South Africa to “resolve the situation caused by this mistake.”
The flight that became the center of controversy arrived at South Africa’s Oliver Reginald Tambo International Airport on Thursday.
The passengers were initially denied entry and were held on the plane for more than 10 hours.
South African authorities, which strongly supported the Palestinian cause during the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, said this was because the passengers did not have exit stamps in their passports. Palestinians can travel to South Africa for 90 days without a visa.
Eventually, after the intervention of a local charity, the group was allowed to disembark. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was done out of “empathy (and) compassion”. South African authorities said 23 of the passengers had taken other flights, so 130 passengers were allowed into the country.
Speaking at a media briefing on South Africa’s preparations to host this weekend’s G20 leaders’ summit, Lamola said Thursday’s flight looked like “part of a broader agenda to move Palestinians from Palestine to many different parts of the world”.
“(It was) an obviously well-planned operation because they were not only sent to South Africa. There were other countries that sent such flights,” he said, without giving any details. He added that the matter was under investigation.
Another plane carrying 176 Palestinians landed in Johannesburg two weeks ago, with some of the passengers traveling to other countries, according to Gift of the Givers, a local charity that is assisting arrivals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged to “voluntarily” resettle Palestinians from Gaza, a move that has been criticized by Palestinians, human rights groups and many in the international community.
Speaking a day after the plane’s arrival, South Africa’s president said Palestinians were “somehow mysteriously put on a plane passing through Nairobi” and flown to South Africa, local online publication News24 reported.
“The residents left the Gaza Strip after Kogat received approval from a third country to receive the residents,” Kogat, the Israeli military agency that controls Gaza crossings, said in a statement, without specifying the country at the time.
Kogat on Monday named South Africa as the third country to agree to take in Palestinians.
South Africa has been a strong critic of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
The country’s sympathy for the Palestinian struggle for an independent state goes back decades, particularly to the early 1990s, when anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela pledged support for the Palestinian cause.
Massive pro-Palestinian marches have been held across South Africa since the conflict began.
Smaller pro-Israel marches and rallies have been held in the country, which has the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2023, the South African government filed a lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly rejected South Africa’s claims, calling them “baseless”.
