Second Gaza aid ship to depart Larnaca soon, says Cypriot minister

A second Gaza-bound aid ship will embark from the Cypriot port of Larnaca once a boat already sailing along the new maritime corridor completes its mission, Cyprus’s foreign minister says.

The second vessel, “with bigger capacity” than the in-transit Open Arms, will be able to leave Larnaca “after the off-load” of the first one, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos tells reporters. “If there is no problem, we have lined up the next departure.”

The second ship “has been in Larnaca since Saturday” and is being inspected, Kombos says, without specifying how much aid is being loaded onto it.

While the first boat was arranged “through an NGO, we have lined up a follow-up through a commercial vessel with bigger capacity,” the minister adds.

Once near Gaza, the aid carried by the Open Arms will be delivered onto a pier built for the operation by US charity World Central Kitchen, which will then distribute it.

“It’s a maiden trip, we need to make sure we have the capacity to receive and distribute” food to the population,” Kombos says. A major concern for the delivery is “crowd management,” according to the minister, with the situation particularly acute in the territory’s north.