An aid ship set to deliver much needed food to Gaza remains docked in Cyprus Monday morning, despite having planned to sail on Sunday.
Reports suggest ‘technical issues’ have delayed the sailing.
According to CyBC, the green light was given for the departure of the vessel carrying 150 tons of humanitarian aid on Sunday, but after briefly moving around the harbour, she returned to her mooring.
When it finally departs from Larnaca, the ship, belonging to the Spanish charity Open Arms, is expected to take two days to reach Gaza.
The delivery of aid to Gaza is of critical urgency as the humanitarian crisis in the enclave has been worsening since Israel launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza to retaliate against a deadly Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
On Friday, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the immediate launch of a project to establish a maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza.
“We are now very close to opening this corridor, hopefully this Saturday-Sunday, and I’m very glad to see an initial pilot will be launched today,” she told journalists after visiting Cyprus’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center in the port city of Larnaca.
“We are launching this Cyprus maritime corridor together: the European Union, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States,” she added.
