ISTANBUL

South Africa is investigating a "mysterious" chartered flight that brought 153 Palestinian refugees into the country without the required documents on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Friday.

"These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi (Kenya's capital) and came here," Ramaphosa told reporters, adding that the intelligence agency and the Department of Home Affairs, are investigating the matter.

On Thursday, South Africa granted a 90-day visa exemption for 153 Palestinians who arrived from Kenya to seek asylum in the country, although they were initially denied entry due to not passing the required interviews and lacking customary departure stamps in their passports.

The Palestinian refugees waited for more than 10 hours on the tarmac at OR Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg to be cleared or turned away. The news caused outrage among activists in the country known to be strong supporters of Palestinian rights.

"During the process, BMA (Border Management Authority) officials noticed the absence of departure stamps in some of their passports, as well as the fact that a number of travellers did not appear to have return tickets or addresses for their accommodation in South Africa," Home Affairs explained in a written statement.

It noted that by the time the entry was granted, 23 refugees of the group had already taken onward flights to other destinations.

In the meantime, the Palestinian Embassy in South Africa also underscored on social media that 153 Palestinian citizens came "from Gaza via Ramon Airport through Nairobi without any prior note or coordination."

It said that the flight was arranged by an "unregistered and misleading organization."

The embassy noted that the organization "exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions" of people in Gaza, "deceived families, collected money from them, and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner."

"This entity later attempted to disown any responsibility once complications arose," it added.

Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the Gift of the Givers humanitarian group, told South African broadcaster SABC that Israel is to be blamed for the uncoordinated entry of Palestinian refugees into the country.

"This, unfortunately, sounds like something very sinister. This is not the first flight; it’s the second flight. This seems to be a coordinated effort from Israel to carry out a process of ethnic cleansing," he said.

He noted that people pay a "high price to front organisations of Israel" and then moved to Shalom and to the Ramon military base where they are flown to different countries.

"Most of them on the first plane didn’t even know where they were going and then of course, there was no exit stamp and when they get to a foreign country, they are further embarrassed and further put into difficulty, like what happened in South Africa," Sooliman added.

Meanwhile, according to the BBC, Israeli military body Cogat, which controls Gaza's crossings, said in a statement: "The residents left the Gaza Strip after Cogat received approval from a third country to receive them."

Cogat, however, did not specify the third country.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Loay Abu Saif, one of the 153 Palestinians, said that Israel helped facilitate his group’s transfer and noted that he and his family left Gaza without knowing their final destination.

He described the journey that lasted more than 24 hours and involved a change of planes as a "trip of suffering."

Abu Saif further revealed to Al Jazeera that the organization had promoted the registration form on social media along with a selection process seemingly prioritizing families with children and requiring a valid Palestinian travel document, as well as security clearance from Israel.

He said no timelines were given for leaving Gaza, only that they would be informed a day in advance, and were instructed to carry no personal belongings except relevant documents.

Abu Saif added that the trip cost about $1,400-$2,000 per person.

He further underscored that, after selection, they were bused from Rafah to the Karem Abu Salem crossing for checks before heading to Israel’s Ramon Airport, and reaffirmed that their travel documents were not stamped by Israeli authorities.

The flight was the second plane transporting Palestinians fleeing the genocide in Gaza to South Africa.

The first plane landed late last month at OR Tambo International Airport carrying 176 Palestinians.