On Thursday morning, a chartered plane carrying 153 Palestinians from war-torn Gaza – many without the required travel documents – landed at an airport near Johannesburg, leaving South African officials “blindsided”.
After nearly 12 hours of scrambling, the group was allowed to disembark into the care of a local charity organisation.
More details have emerged about the scheme run by “Al-Majd Europe”, through which activists argue Israel is advancing its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
The Palestinian passengers were charged a hefty sum of money by the organisation, which says on its website that it coordinates “evacuations from conflict zones”.
Here is everything we know about the group’s transit so far and who’s behind Al-Majd Europe.
The plane full of people sat on a runway for nearly 12 hours while South African authorities tried to figure out why they did not have exit stamps or slips from when they left Gaza, according to officials from South Africa’s border agency.
They were also not sure when asked by immigration where they would stay or how long they planned to be in South Africa.




OHCHR condemned this week’s attacks as abhorrent and said they reflected a wider pattern of increased violence against Palestinians.
There are now three remaining deceased hostages in Gaza, following Thursday's return of the body of Meni Goddard. Israeli authorities have been releasing the bodies of Palestinians in exchange for the return of hostage remains.
Ukraine and Greece signed an agreement in Athens on Sunday for the provision of US-supplied liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Kyiv throughout the winter months.
Concerns over a small brush fire that reignited days later into the mammoth Palisades fire – the most destructive in Los Angeles history – have grown in recent weeks amid reports that firefighters were ordered to leave the original site of the smaller blaze despite their concerns the ground was still smoldering.
A group of 17 transgender US air force members has sued the Trump administration for denying them early retirement pensions and benefits.
This fall, multiple states including Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee and Wisconsin have reported outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease, a contagious virus that commonly infects children under 5 but can also cause symptoms in older kids and adults, too.





























