Inside the shadow network moving Palestinians abroad
A plane carrying Gaza refugees arrived in Johannesburg earlier this month, exposing a systematic pattern of organised transfers that had Israeli military coordination
Reuters
A Palestinian man walks with his child after speaking to Reuters at an undisclosed location in Johannesburg, South Africa after being transfered from Gaza via Israel on 14 November, 2025.
Inside the shadow network moving Palestinians abroad
In mid-November 2025, a chartered aircraft carrying 153 Palestinians landed in Johannesburg without proper exit documentation. South African authorities initially refused entry, citing missing departure stamps in the passengers' passports and a lack of prearranged accommodation. President Cyril Ramaphosa ultimately granted humanitarian admission, but the incident exposed a systematic pattern of organised Palestinian departures from Gaza facilitated through channels with Israeli military coordination.
The flight's final destination may not have been coincidental. Faced with what may have been an uncoordinated flight, the South African government, which has been extremely vocal in its support for Palestinians, suddenly found itself faced with a choice to approve entry for the flight or have to publicly kick out Palestinian refugees—a PR nightmare.
The operational framework underlying these flights reveals significant state involvement across multiple levels. Passengers report registering through a website operated by Al-Majd Europe beginning in June 2025, paying between $1,500 and $5,000 per person to secure travel. Those approved by Israeli authorities received coordinated instructions to gather at meeting points in Gaza before Israeli military transportation conveyed them through the Kerem Shalom crossing to Ramon Airport in southern Israel.
Palestinian passengers then boarded chartered flights with incomplete information regarding final destinations. According to the South African site Daily Maverick, some passengers had onward tickets to Canada and Australia, while most believed their final destination was India.
Hanan Jarrar, Palestinian ambassador to South Africa, smiles for a picture on a plane in a location given as given as Johannesburg, South Africa, in this handout image released on 13 November 2025.
An investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz traced operational coordination to Tomer Janar Lind, a dual Israeli-Estonian national who founded the consulting firm Talent Globus in 2024. According to the report's findings, Lind coordinated departures with COGAT—the Israeli military unit responsible for civilian administration in Palestinian territories—and worked directly with Israel's Defence Ministry Voluntary Emigration Bureau, established in February 2025. When contacted by Haaretz, Lind confirmed his role in facilitating Palestinian exits but declined to provide additional details.
The Al-Majd organisation has also been tied to two people (perhaps simply serving as cover): Adnan and Moayad, both described by the site as "humanitarian project coordinators". Few details are known of the two, apart from a Facebook post showing Moayad boarding a flight, saying with the comment "I left Gaza, and I will not return. I left a land of war, hunger, and ignorance... a homeland where exile has become more merciful than staying. As long as the killing continues, minds are assassinated, and dignity is buried... peace be upon Gaza, from afar".
The flights demonstrate a practical mechanism that aligns with longstanding policy discussions in Israel around facilitating emigration
Policy origins and motivations
The organisational structure supporting these operations emerged from earlier policy deliberations. In September 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened Defence Ministry officials to discuss enabling Palestinian "voluntary emigration" from Gaza. Following US President Donald Trump's February 2025 proposal to relocate Gaza's population and redevelop the territory as a Middle Eastern "Riviera," Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the development of implementation procedures.
By February 2025, Katz formally established the Defence Ministry Voluntary Emigration Bureau tasked with "facilitating the voluntary relocation of Gaza Strip residents to third countries in a safe and organised manner." The government explicitly aligned this initiative with Trump's policy framework: The 20-point peace plan does, in fact, include a provision that allows Palestinians in Gaza to voluntarily leave the Gaza Strip. Importantly, it also ostensibly allows Gazans to return to the Strip although it's unclear whether this point will materialise.
The Defence Ministry characterised the bureaucratic machinery as facilitating individual choice. COGAT representatives stated that evacuations proceed in coordination with host countries, though third-party organisations sometimes execute operations. However, independent analysts emphasised the contextual conditions shaping such choices.
The precise extent of organisational participation—whether Al-Majd Europe operates as an Israeli military subcontractor, private commercial venture with Israeli coordination, or hybrid arrangement—remains unclear. But what is clear is that the flights are part of an Israel-sanctioned (to the least) or Israel-controlled project, which raises the question of the motivation behind the flights? To some, this question may seem trivial: The Israeli government wants to displace Palestinians. Several officials from the Israeli far right, and beyond, haven't exactly been shy about their intentions.
Yet the idea that Israel can relocate Palestinians from Gaza through these hush-hush programmes with sketchy intermediaries is ridiculous. Does Netanyahu really think he can empty Gaza one flight at a time? Probably not, but this may not be the goal. The Israeli Prime Minister is known for many things, but not for his propensity to live in his own fairyland.
Instead, this could be a play designed to pander to his far-right allies, whose support during the ongoing ceasefire is not a given. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have openly objected to the ceasefire and called for a resumption of war.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir take part in the ultranationalist March of the Flags near Jerusalem's Old City, on June 15, 2021.
We have also entered a new phase of the ceasefire, and this may be related. The ceasefire was deliberately grounded in vague principles, particularly regarding long-term provisions. While it allowed for the cessation of hostilities and the release of hostages, it left major questions—including the disarmament of Hamas, the status and role of the new "International Security Force" to be deployed in Gaza and that of the civilian government and effort to return to the two-state solution framework—completely untouched.
As a result, we've run into a major impasse: Hamas said it won't disarm, the Israeli government won't commit to the eventual creation of a Palestinian State, partners are baulking at the prospect of participating in the ISF, and the Israeli army remains deployed in half of Gaza.
This impasse could easily upend the ceasefire, yet it is also clear that President Trump wants the ceasefire to hold, and has put his own reputation on the line to do so, to the point of potentially being named as chairman of a new board supervising the ceasefire and Gaza's reconstruction. Though the agreement could collapse, it is more likely to endure, at least for a time, entering a twilight zone where both sides try to outmanoeuvre the other. In this context of this nasty game between two adversaries, the flight may serve another purpose: to show Hamas that once again, time is not on its side, while also pressuring those who claim to support Palestinians to put pressure on the group.
The Johannesburg incident illuminates the broader dynamics behind the emerging system of Palestinian departures from Gaza. While presented as a voluntary humanitarian movement, the process reflects a complex intersection of Israeli government policy, private intermediaries, and uncertain coordination with receiving states.
Mandla Mandela, the grandson of the late Nelson Mandela, arrives in South Africa on 8 October 2025, after being detained and later released by Israeli forces while sailing aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
For South Africa, the episode underscored the political sensitivities facing countries publicly supportive of the Palestinian cause when confronted with concrete responsibilities for displaced people. For Israel, the flights demonstrate a practical mechanism that aligns with longstanding policy discussions around facilitating emigration, even as the scale and ultimate objectives of the programme remain ambiguous.
Against the backdrop of a fragile and unresolved ceasefire, these operations also operate as a form of political signalling—both domestically within Israel and to external actors, including Hamas and international partners. Whether the flights represent the early stages of a larger strategy or a limited, improvised tool for managing political pressures, they highlight how movement out of Gaza has become entangled in a broader contest over leverage, narratives, and the future shape of the conflict.
