Palestinians who have arrived in South Africa will not be repatriated, according to Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa lets 153 Palestinians from Gaza stay after they arrive, saying it is for caring and humanitarian reasons.

A private flight brought dozens of Palestinians to South Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday that they will not be sent back.

Ramaphosa said that the 153 Palestinians who arrived at O.R. Tambo International Airport on Thursday were being checked out and would be let in. He told reporters at a briefing in Soweto, “Yesterday, a plane carrying 160 Palestinians landed at O.R. Tambo. These are people from Gaza who got on a plane that went by Nairobi and came here. I learned about it from my Minister of Home Affairs, who asked what we should do now, and I told them we couldn’t turn them back.”

People didn’t like how the South African government held the passengers, including a woman who was nine months pregnant, on the plane for about 12 hours because of problems with their travel documents. When the preacher met with the travelers, he said it was very hot and the kids were screaming and crying.

South Africa’s Border Management Authority says the Palestinians arrived on a chartered plane after a halt in Nairobi. At first, they were turned away because they didn’t have exit stamps from the Israeli government, didn’t say how long they were staying, and didn’t give local names.

“These are people from a broken, war-torn country, and out of compassion and empathy, we must receive them and be able to deal with the situation they are facing, even though they do not have the necessary documents and papers,” Ramaphosa said. “It does seem like they were being, you know, flushed out.” “The specifics will be given to us later, but out of compassion, we couldn’t send them back, so they came,” he said.

The 153 people on the plane, including families and children, were allowed to get off on Thursday night after the Ministry of Home Affairs stepped in and the NGO Gift of the Givers offered them a place to stay. The Border Management Authority said that 23 of the travelers have since left for other countries, leaving 130 still in South Africa.

Imtiaz Sooliman, head of Gift of the Givers, said that this was the second plane in two weeks that brought Palestinians to South Africa. The passengers said they didn’t know where they were going. It is thought that both planes brought people from Gaza.

It’s still not clear how the charter plane was put together, where it came from, or how the people were able to leave Israel without the right papers. The preacher told the national broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now plan to take refuge in South Africa.

South Africa has long backed the Palestinian cause, and the way the tourists were treated has made people angry and worried.