By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
More than 150 Palestinian refugees seeking asylum in South Africa have been denied entry and left stranded on an aircraft at the OR Tambo International Airport.
The refugees, who arrived from Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday morning, were denied entry due to missing exit stamps in their passports – a move that humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers claims was deliberately orchestrated by Israeli authorities to compound their plight.
Gift of the Givers said the Palestinians have been kept waiting for several hours to get off the plane because Israel refused to give them exit stamps in their passports.
‘”The (South African) Border Management Authority acted in keeping with their mandate not to allow passengers without an exit stamp to disembark, “Imtiaz Sooliman, chairman and founder of the Gift of the Givers Foundation, said in a statement
Sooliman claimed that “Israel deliberately did not stamp the passports of these poor people to exacerbate their suffering in a foreign country.”
He thanked International Relations minister Ronald Lamola and his Director General Zane Dangor for coming to the rescue of the stranded Palestinian refugees.
Sooliman said Lamola took the initiative to write a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is expected to waive the requirement of the exit stamp to allow the Palestinians in.
This is the second plane transporting Palestinians fleeing the genocide in Gaza to South Africa.
The first plane landed late last month at OR Tambo airport carrying 176 Palestinians.
Sooliman said family members of the Palestinians living in South Africa told the Gift of the Givers that their relatives were coming on a second plane from Gaza.
Meanwhile the ceasefire deal will not move to subsequent phases until all the remains of Israeli hostages are returned.
The next parts of the 20-point plan call for creating an international stabilization force. Its makeup hasn’t been finalized, but diplomats are working to define its role, persuade Arab countries to take part, and win wider international support.
The fragile agreement aims to wind down the war that was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.