Shadowy firm run by Israeli-Estonian has got hundreds of Palestinians out of Gaza

Palestinians from the Gaza Strip at Johannesburg Airport, November 2025

Avi Scharf and Liza Rozovsky report a Haaretz exposé on 16 November 2025:

In recent months, several charter flights carrying groups of dozens of Palestinians from Gaza have departed from Ramon Airport near southern Israel’s Eilat to destinations around the world.

Haaretz has learned that the departures from Gaza were organized by a shadowy organization, described on its website as a humanitarian organization “providing aid and rescue efforts to Muslim communities in conflict and war zones.” An investigation by Haaretz revealed that behind the organization, named Al-Majd, is Tomer Janar Lind, a dual Israeli-Estonian national.-

The most recent group to leave Gaza, consisting of 153 people, boarded a chartered Fly Yo flight to Nairobi. Haaretz has learned that the passengers did not know which country they were traveling to. From Nairobi, they transferred to a chartered flight operated by the South African airline Lift, landing Thursday morning in Johannesburg. South African authorities delayed their disembarkation for more than twelve hours, claiming the passengers lacked proper documentation, did not have return tickets, and had not had their passports stamped upon leaving Israel. After a twelve-hour review, the authorities allowed the Gazans to enter the country. According to passengers, including families with young children, no food or water was provided during the wait, and conditions inside the plane were extremely difficult.

A statement from the Palestinian Embassy in South Africa claimed that the group’s departure was organized by “an unregistered and misleading organization that exploited the tragic humanitarian conditions of our people in Gaza, deceived families, collected money from them, and facilitated their travel in an irregular and irresponsible manner. This entity later attempted to disown any responsibility once complications arose.” The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also warned Gaza residents “to avoid falling prey to human trafficking networks, blood merchants, and displacement agents.”

Haaretz learned that the Voluntary Emigration Bureau, established within Israel’s Defense Ministry, referred the organization Al-Majd to coordinate the Gazans’ departures with the Israeli army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

In March of last year, Israel’s security cabinet decided to establish this bureau to significantly ease security requirements for Palestinians leaving Gaza. However, little is known about the bureau’s operations, headed by Vice Director General of the Defense Ministry official Yaakov (Kobi) Blitstein. Haaretz also learned that other organizations attempting to arrange evacuations of Gazans were referred to COGAT through this administration, but as far as is known, their efforts were unsuccessful.

A Gaza resident documenting herself as she leaves the enclave

According to Al-Majd’s website, the organization was founded in 2010 in Germany and maintains offices in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. However, Haaretz found that no organization by that name is registered in Germany or East Jerusalem, and the website itself was only launched in February of this year. Links to social media accounts lead nowhere. The site also claims to have aided victims of the 2023 Turkey earthquake and Syrian civil war refugees, but provides no evidence to support these claims.

The website also lists two “project managers”: Adnan from Jerusalem and Muayad from Gaza. Muayad posted on Instagram a photo showing himself boarding a Romanian plane that left in May for Indonesia, writing: “I left Gaza – a land of war and hunger – and I will not return. As long as the killing continues, minds are murdered, and dignity is buried… peace be upon Gaza from afar.” Haaretz could not find any information online about Adnan.

While the website provides no identifying information about its managers, an older version displayed the logo of an Estonian-registered company, Talent Globus. A page on the site detailing “conditions for voluntary emigration from the Gaza Strip,” stating that Talent Globus organizes the groups. According to the website, the company allegedly provides consulting and recruitment services, but it features stock images, a false phone number, and addresses in Estonia, London, and Qatar.

A search of the Estonian Companies Register shows that Talent Globus was established a year ago by Tomer Janar Lind. According to the U.K. Companies Register, Lind founded four different companies in England over the past decade; three are no longer active. Corporate documents indicate he was born in 1989 and holds Israeli and Estonian citizenship. His LinkedIn profile mentions that he assists Palestinians in Gaza. Recently, he reportedly founded a new consulting company in Dubai, though the listed phone number is incorrect and connects to a different Dubai company.

In a call Haaretz made to his London phone number, Lind did not deny his involvement in arranging the departures from Gaza but refused to say who is behind the organization. “I don’t wish to comment at this stage, maybe later,” he said.

How this is operated

The Al-Majd website has been circulated on social media in Gaza in recent months. It invites Palestinians who wish to leave the enclave to submit their details, and many have done so. According to Haaretz, after initial approval, each candidate receives instructions to transfer money to the organization, ranging from $1,500 to $2,700. After payment, the candidate is added to a WhatsApp group where updates regarding the departure are shared. All communication between the organization and the Gazans takes place exclusively via WhatsApp, from a phone number that appears to be Israeli.

The first group, 57 Gazans, left the Strip on May 27. The evening before, dozens of Palestinians received a WhatsApp message with an exact location in Gaza where they were to report. They then boarded buses to the Kerem Shalom crossing. After Israeli security checks, the convoy proceeded to Ramon Airport, where the Gazans boarded a Romanian chartered plane operated by Fly Lili. The flight went to Budapest, and from there they continued to Indonesia and Malaysia.

The second group, 150 Palestinians, left on October 27. The process was similar: three buses departed from central Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. Photos obtained by Haaretz showed several people wearing Al-Majd shirts and hats. This time, they boarded a Romanian Fly Yo charter to Nairobi, Kenya, where they transferred to a South African Lift charter to Johannesburg. Unlike the most recent flight, these Gazans were allowed to enter South Africa without issue, and some have since posted on social media about their new lives. Two posts documented the entire journey, from leaving Gaza to landing in South Africa.

With U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House earlier this year, he began speaking about transferring Gaza residents, proposing relocating Palestinians to areas where they could live without disturbance and without violence. The peak of these remarks came at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last February, when Trump said the U.S. would “take over” Gaza and turn it into a “Riviera,” while Palestinians would be relocated to a “beautiful area” “a little bit away” from Gaza.

The Israeli political leadership decided to embrace what was then called the “Trump plan.” According to a security source who spoke to Haaretz several months ago, since the security cabinet’s March decision, only a small percentage of Gazans requesting to leave the Strip have been denied exit by the Shin Bet, whereas previously refusals were far more common.

COGAT told Haaretz that, in general, coordination for Gazans leaving is handled by Israeli authorities with the countries receiving the refugees (usually dual nationals or students with study visas) or with the World Health Organization, which oversees the evacuation of injured and sick individuals and their distribution among host countries. In rare cases, coordination occurs through third-party organizations, but even then, Israel ensures that a country is willing to receive each Gazan. Regarding Thursday’s incident, COGAT stated that Al-Majd provided them in advance with the names of Palestinians traveling to South Africa, including visas and all required documentation.

Fly Yo, the Romanian airline that flew the Gazans from Ramon to Kenya, operates daily charter flights from Ben Gurion Airport to destinations in Europe. In a conversation with Haaretz, Ziv Mayberg, the airline owner, confirmed the details but said Fly Yo did not operate directly with any NGO. According to him, an Israeli travel agent the company works with regularly booked the two flights. Mayberg refused to disclose the agent’s identity but added that he received all necessary approvals from Kenyan authorities to fly the Gazans there.

Global Airways said in response that a charter broker named Kibris Turkish Airline was the one who booked the two flights from Nairobi to Johannesburg, which were operated using an aircraft belonging to its subsidiary, Lift.

The company stated that it had never worked with the Al-Majd nonprofit organization and that the agent, with whom they had not previously worked, informed Global that the passengers intended to visit South Africa for up to 90 days, meaning they would not require entry visas. “The passenger list was sent to the authorities 24 hours in advance, and the authorities did not raise any red flags.”

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