The latest events merely reveal another layer of this long continuum: expulsion through paperwork, or more precisely, through the deliberate absence of it. Multiple investigations show that passengers were escorted through the Karam Salem crossing and transferred to Israel’s Ramon Airport without their passports being stamped. Bureaucratically, this erases their legal identity; without proof of exit, their right of return dissolves. Politically, it signals a chilling shift from siege to disappearance — the continuation of ethnic cleansing by administrative means.
The organisation behind these “humanitarian” flights calls itself Al-Majd Europe. On its own website, the group describes itself as a humanitarian organisation “founded in 2010 in Germany” and “specialising in providing aid and rescue efforts to Muslim communities in conflict and war zones.” Its self-presentation is steeped in religious language — “Our roots are rooted in the values and heritage of Islam, and our headquarters are located in Jerusalem” — projecting an image of benevolent rescue and offering “evacuation services” to Gazans. Yet the site also includes a disclaimer warning against “hidden smugglers using our name and asking for money.”
Investigative journalists from AP and Al Jazeera have since uncovered a digital mirage: a domain registered abroad, cryptocurrency payment options, AI-generated staff photos, and no verifiable headquarters. Families in Gaza reportedly paid thousands of dollars to secure passage, only for the organisation to vanish once the flights landed. Is this the latest form of smuggling — not into, but away from the homeland? What masquerades as rescue thus becomes complicity, a humanitarian mask concealing the machinery of erasure.