Some 160 Palestinians fleeing Gaza were stranded on their plane at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo Airport for 12 hours on Thursday before eventually being allowed entry by South African Authorities.

Footage circulating on social media showed a Palestinian woman on the plane in tears over the situation.

After “two straight days of hardship and toil, between buses and planes, we received a very sad surprise,” she said. “The state is unable to receive us just because we’re people coming from a war.”

“My home is gone. I don’t have anywhere to go, any shelter. Where will we go? Enough,” she cried, adding: “Why us?”

According to Haaretz, the group left Gaza early Wednesday morning, via the Strip’s southern Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, following Israeli vetting.

Members of the group were then taken by bus to Israel’s Ramon Airport, near Eilat, where they boarded a chartered plane to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and from there boarded the chartered flight to Johannesburg.

South Africa won't let refugees from Gaza leave the plane at Johannesburg airport tarmac. The Gazans have uploaded clips of their families stranded inside the plane.pic.twitter.com/9OaViti79j

— Ahmed Quraishi (@_AhmedQuraishi) November 13, 2025

An earlier group departing Gaza made an identical trip some two weeks ago and disembarked in Johannesburg without incident, Haaretz said. Both journeys were organized by an hitherto unknown organization called Al-Majd, which has received many requests from Gazans who want to leave the Strip, the report said.

The incident sparked widespread criticism of South Africa on social media as the country, which has led the allegations of genocide against Israel, was seen as unwilling to actually assist Palestinians.

Imtiaz Sooliman, a South African activist who has been helping the Gazans, blamed Israel, saying that it had sent the plane without coordinating with South Africa and had failed to put exit stamps on passports. It was unclear from Sooliman’s account how the Palestinians would have traveled to and from Kenya.

The South African Zionist Federation on Friday called Sooliman’s allegation a “calculated distortion weaponized........

© The Times of Israel