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Between Desperation and Expulsion: The Flights Emptying Gaza
November 23, 2025
Humanitarian Aid or Expulsion Mechanism? The Opaque Network of Flights Emptying Gaza Under the Shadow of Israeli Coordination
A week ago, a plane carrying 153 Palestinians landed in Johannesburg in an operation orchestrated by the organization Al-Majd Europe. The evacuated Palestinians arrived after a journey that included a stop in Kenya, and which, according to testimonies gathered by Al Jazeera, was clearly coordinated by the Israeli army and included a thorough search of their personal effects before crossing the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem border crossing in southern Gaza. Witnesses also stated that the passengers were unaware of their final destination and could only carry a phone, cash, and a backpack.
This clandestine operation follows a recurring pattern: Palestinian families from Gaza pay between $1,500 and $5,000 per person after responding to social media ads, are transported by bus from Rafah to Ramon Airport, and travel without their passports being stamped. Payments are made via transfers to individual—not institutional—accounts, and the flights are operated by Romanian planes with a stopover in Nairobi, where coordination with local authorities is also believed to be in place.
These flights align with the objective of the "voluntary departure" policy for Palestinians from Gaza, a policy Israel institutionalized in March by creating a specific office within the Ministry of Defense. Human rights organizations qualify this policy as ethnic cleansing. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed the arrival of two flights carrying over 300 Palestinians and described the operation as an attempted "expulsion" currently under investigation by intelligence services.
Furthermore, this policy would implement the controversial suggestions of US President Donald Trump to turn Gaza into a "Riviera of the Middle East" by resettling Palestinians in host countries.
Faced with these revelations, an investigation by the newspaper Haaretz identified Al-Majd Europe as an entity led by Israeli-Estonian citizen Tomer Janar Lind, who collaborates with the Voluntary Departure Bureau of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The organization shows multiple irregularities: its domain name was registered only ten months ago, its email address does not work, it uses fake photos in its "impact stories," and it requests transfers to personal accounts.
Following denunciations, Al-Majd Europe broke its silence by publishing a document defining itself as an association founded by "refugees who fled dictatorial regimes." They admitted that their "only interaction with the Israeli authorities is to coordinate exits from Gaza," but categorically denied any link to Mossad.
In contrast, the Palestinian Authority has warned against these "agents of displacement," accusing them of profiting from humanitarian despair. At the same time, academics such as Oroub el-Abed from Birzeit University point out that this corresponds to a "colonial pattern of systematic dispossession" aimed at emptying Gaza of its population.
The controversy grows as the Al-Majd Europe organization identifies the Palestinian Authority as its main obstacle, accusing it of "using the people of Gaza as a political lever" and receiving "international funding for every resident who remains in Gaza." Meanwhile, Palestinian families in Gaza, trapped between the devastation of war and these controversial evacuation mechanisms, face the dilemma of remaining in a destroyed territory or risking an exodus into the unknown.
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Image source:
Embassy of the State of Palestine / South Africa via Facebook/REUTERS