The desperate Palestinians from war-torn Gaza who arrived at OR Tambo International Airport this week paid as much as 2,000 about R34,000 each for one-way tickets to an undisclosed destination.
Sarah Oosthuizen, a volunteer at Gift of the Givers who helped some of the more than 150 Palestinian refugees, told the Sunday Times that many of passengers only learnt in mid-air that they were headed to Johannesburg.
She said the chartered plane that left from Ramon in Israel was the second flight carrying Palestinians to arrive in South Africa following one on October 28.