The desperate Palestinians from war-torn Gaza who arrived at OR Tambo International Airport this week paid as much as $2,000 (about R34,000) each for one-way tickets to an undisclosed destination.
Sarah Oosthuizen, a volunteer at Gift of the Givers who helped some of the more than 150 Palestinian refugees, told the Sunday Times that many of passengers only learnt in mid-air that they were headed to Johannesburg.
She said the chartered plane that left from Ramon in Israel was the second flight carrying Palestinians to arrive in South Africa following one on October 28.
Oosthuizen said everyone on the plane was from Gaza and had been displaced several times since Israel launched its offensive on the territory in October 2023, following the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people in the Jewish state.
Some of those who arrived on Friday were relatives of people who came on the first flight, she said.
“They have been displaced multiple times, but they are all from Gaza,” Oosthuizen said.
She said many of them were “highly traumatised” and in a state of shock.
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