In an exclusive digital investigation, Al Jazeera uncovered a trail of covert flights and opaque figures tied to Al-Majd Europe, an unregistered front organization that falsely portrayed itself as a humanitarian group while operating in line with Israeli regime policies.

The investigation focused on a mystery flight last month that carried 153 Palestinians from Gaza to South Africa, exposing what Al Jazeera described as a network designed to profit from suffering while advancing forced displacement.

The passengers arrived at OR Tambo International Airport, serving Johannesburg and Pretoria, on November 13.

They were initially denied entry by South African border police because their passports lacked Israeli exit stamps and were kept aboard the aircraft for 12 hours before being allowed to disembark.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the group was admitted “out of compassion”, while stressing that his government would investigate the incident after it appeared the passengers had been “flushed out” of the Gaza Strip.

Separately, Israeli regime officials have repeatedly voiced support for what they call the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza, a term widely criticized as a cover for forced evacuation.

In March 2025, the Israeli regime’s security cabinet established a controversial bureau aimed at encouraging Palestinians to leave Gaza, headed by former war ministry official Yaakov Blitstein.

At the time, Israeli war minister Israel Katz claimed that 40 percent of Gaza’s residents were “interested in emigrating”.

Meanwhile, Al-Majd Europe launched its online presence a month earlier, claiming to focus on relief work in Muslim countries, particularly “for Gazans wishing to exit Gaza”.

The group asserted it had organized mobile health clinics in Gaza and overseas trips for Palestinian doctors, claims that Al Jazeera later found to be false.

A passenger from the November flight, who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said he contacted Al-Majd Europe after seeing its link online.

“Initially, it said it was free. Then they asked for $1,400 (per person). Then the price went up to $2,500,” he said.

Testimonies gathered by Al Jazeera showed payments ranged from $1,000 to $2,000 per person, with families required to keep their departure secret and flight details released only hours before takeoff.

Passengers said they were instructed to report to the Karem Abu Salem crossing in southern Gaza, known in Israel as Kerem Shalom.

There, their personal belongings were confiscated and they were transported by bus to Ramon Airport near the Israeli-occupied city of Eilat, apparently under Israeli regime supervision.

Nigel Branken, a South African social worker who assisted the passengers, told Al Jazeera there were “very clearly … marks of Israel involved in this operation to take people … to displace them”.

Evacuees said they were not told their final destination until moments before boarding and were flown out without exit stamps on a plane registered to a newly created airline, FLYYO.

Al Jazeera found that FLYYO has organized several similar flights departing Israeli airports for destinations including Romania, Indonesia, South Africa and Kenya.

In a related development, further scrutiny of Al-Majd Europe revealed its claimed identity as a German-based humanitarian foundation to be false.

Al Jazeera found no record of the organization in German or European company databases, and its listed address in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds did not exist in official records.

The investigation identified two Palestinian individuals publicly linked to the group, including Muayad Hisham Saidam, listed by Al-Majd as its humanitarian projects manager in Gaza.

Online records showed that in May 2024 Saidam’s wife appealed for donations to help her family leave Gaza, and a year later Saidam posted an image of himself boarding a plane chartered by Romanian airline Fly Lili.

Using flight timing, location data and imagery, Al Jazeera determined Saidam was likely aboard a May 27, 2025 flight from Israel to Budapest carrying 57 Palestinians from Gaza.

While Saidam’s identity appears genuine and his family was likely evacuated to Indonesia, his precise role within Al-Majd Europe remains unclear.

The second figure, identified only as Adnan, appeared to have no digital footprint.

On November 13, the day of the Johannesburg flight, Al-Majd Europe removed a webpage listing partner organizations.

Using open-source intelligence, Al Jazeera recovered the page, which claimed cooperation with several well-known groups, including the International Red Cross.

One listed partner, Talent Globus, stood out.

The Estonian-registered recruitment firm was established in 2024 with a fund of just $350 and listed four employees, including director Tom Lind, who holds Israeli and Estonian citizenship.

Lind has been linked to several other companies lacking official registration or physical addresses.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz previously identified Lind as one of the coordinators of flights carrying Palestinians out of Ramon Airport.

In May 2025, Lind wrote on LinkedIn that he had left Talent Globus to focus on “humanitarian efforts to support Palestinians”, claiming involvement in evacuating a “substantial number” of people from Gaza.

Al Jazeera found that photos of Talent Globus’s other listed employees were stock images.

Much like those fictitious profiles, Al-Majd Europe itself appears to be a fabricated humanitarian entity.

Although the Israeli regime has publicly signaled a retreat from promoting “voluntary emigration”, Al Jazeera’s findings raise deeper questions about whether covert mechanisms are being used to quietly depopulate Gaza, one secret flight at a time.