Shimi Zuaretz, a spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli body that runs civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said the Palestinians had only been allowed to leave Gaza “after COGAT received approval from a third country to receive them”.

Later Saturday, a spokesperson from the same branch told FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Jerusalem, Noga Tarnopolsky, that the third country was South Africa itself.

“This is quite significant because what Israel is contending – via this admission from the spokesperson – is that South Africa invited these Gazans to come, authorised their arrival and then – facing a significant backlash from the population from South Africa and civil society groups who fear that Israel is trying to perpetrate ethnic cleansing in Gaza by sending these Gazans out – backtracked and pretended not to know anything at all,” she said.

“So this is quite a serious change of tone from the Israel army.”

Kept on plane for hours

After landing in Johannesburg on Thursday, the Gazans were kept aboard their plane for 12 hours because they did not have departure stamps from Israel in their passports.

The home affairs ministry finally allowed the passengers to disembark when an NGO said it would provide them with accommodation.

The NGO, Gift of the Givers, told South African media it did not know who had chartered the flight or a previous one that brought 176 Gazans on October 28.

An Israeli official who did not wish to be identified told AFP that the organisation which coordinated the transfer had submitted third-country visas to COGAT for all the evacuated residents.

‘Mysteriously put on plane’

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told journalists on Friday that it seemed “like they were being flushed out”.

“These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi and came here,” he said.

South Africa’s home affairs ministry said 130 of the group entered the country, while the remaining 23 took onward flights to other destinations.

Zuaretz said COGAT facilitates the departure of Gaza residents through Israel to receiving countries, for patients requiring medical treatment, dual citizens and their family members, “or those possessing visas to third countries”.

Israel “bases its decisions solely on requests received from foreign countries”, he added, saying the departure of more than 40,000 Gaza residents had been facilitated since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip.

South Africa, which hosts the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa, has largely been supportive of the Palestinian cause.

The government filed a case against Israel with the International Court of Justice in 2023, accusing it of genocide in Gaza.