Ship carrying food aid for Gaza leaves Cyprus port

The Open Arms vessel and a tugboat towing a barge depart with humanitarian aid for Gaza from Larnaca, Cyprus, on March 30. Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters

A ship carrying food aid for Gaza has left port in Cyprus and embarked on its second mission to the enclave.

The Open Arms, a Spanish-flagged salvage vessel, set sail from the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Saturday, according to Oscar Camps, the founder of a charitable organization that owns the vessel.

The operation to transport aid to Gaza by sea is led by World Central Kitchen, a non-governmental organization that already launched an aid shipment from Cyprus earlier this month.

The Open Arms' second voyage to Gaza will see “hundreds of tons of food” transported to the strip, according to Camps. The ship is normally a search and rescue vessel used by the NGO Open Arms.

Earlier this month, World Central Kitchen said almost 200 tons of aid were delivered by ship in an operation conducted with the Emirati government and Open Arms, with support from Cyprus.