Kenya has been caught between South Africa and Israel, as the two trade accusations after a plane full of Palestinians landed at the OR Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg on Thursday.
The plane is said to have flown through Nairobi, with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday claiming that SA did not clear the Palestinians to fly to the country.
As such, he relayed that his administration, through the intelligence agency and the Department of Home Affairs, is investigating the matter to figure out who chartered it.
"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.
The President further claimed that the 153 Palestinian refugees lacked the required documents, describing their voyage into South Africa as "mysterious".
Due to the mysterious nature of their flight, they were stuck on the runway for 10 hours before being allowed to step out, as they had reportedly not passed the required interviews and lacked customary departure stamps in their passports.
"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," South Africa's Home Affairs explained in a written statement.
This delay caused an uproar from activists and human rights groups, and eventually, the refugees were issued a 90-day visa exemption for the Palestinian asylum-seekers after an NGO agreed to offer them accommodation.
By that time, 23 of the refugees had taken a flight to somewhere else, leaving only 130 at the airport.
So far, the Israeli military body Cogat, which manages Gaza for the Israeli government, is being blamed for the uncoordinated travel arrangements, with some of the refugees and an official of the NGO that took them in claiming that Israel had organised their departure, but they were not aware which country they would be landing in.
Despite Ramaphosa's insistence that SA was not aware, the Israeli government says South Africa approved the travel.
Cogat told the BBC that it had received approval to bring in the refugees from a third country. An official at Cogat would later on Saturday night confirm to France24 that the third country was South Africa.
"The residents left the Gaza Strip after Cogat received approval from a third country to receive them," Cogat said in a statement.
Kenya's involvement in transporting the 156 people beyond just refuelling the plane remains unclear. SA is investigating, with the Kenyan government not commenting on the ongoing public fallout for several days.
This was the second plane transporting Palestinians fleeing Gaza to South Africa in two months, after another one landed at the same airport last month carrying 176 Palestinians.
