AhlulBayt News Agency: A private aircraft owned by a businessman close to US President Donald Trump was reportedly used to transport Palestinian detainees to the Israeli‑occupied territories.
According to The Guardian, the jet—owned by Florida real‑estate developer Gil Dezer—was chartered as part of a secret deportation program run by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Public records cited in the report show that the Dezer family has long‑standing business ties with Trump and has donated substantial sums to his political campaigns.
The aircraft has twice flown Palestinians from Arizona to Tel Aviv, each time carrying Palestinian men detained by ICE from a Phoenix facility to Tel Aviv, where they were handed over to armed Israeli forces and released at a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.
Each flight reportedly cost between $400,000 and $500,000.
Witnesses said the detainees arrived disoriented, wearing prison‑issued clothing, and carrying their belongings in plastic bags.
“They were not wearing jackets or coats, and the weather was very cold and windy that day,” said a local resident who assisted them.
“They stayed at my place for two hours, I fed them, and they called their families, who either came to pick them up or arranged transportation.”
Some detainees had been unable to contact their families for months and were believed missing, the report added.
Haaretz reported that the deportations followed “an unusual request from Washington to Israel” and were approved by Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet.
Some of the Palestinian men hold US green cards and have spouses, children, or close relatives in the United States. Several had been detained for weeks, and at least one for over a year, the report said.
The revelations sparked outrage among rights advocates, who say ICE is enforcing immigration policy through secretive arrangements that separate families, avoid oversight, and outsource sensitive government functions to politically connected private actors.
Immigration attorneys told The Guardian that deporting Palestinians to Israel may violate international law.
Gissou Nia, director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, said the principle of non‑refoulement prohibits sending individuals to places where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, or other serious harm.
“The United States is bound by international treaties that explicitly prohibit this, including the Convention against Torture,” she said.
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