Open Arms ends Gaza mission after World Central Kitchen attack

"The end of mission 110 arrives, the one we never could have imagined, the most painful," Catalan refugee rescue NGO Open Arms wrote in a statement on Thursday evening. With this, the group ends their humanitarian sea delivery mission in Gaza after the "devastating" World Central Kitchen attack.

"We will continue to speak up for [those killed in the attack], for the more than 32,500 people killed in Gaza, the hundreds of humanitarian workers, the destroyed hospitals, journalists, and all the "isolated cases" that are not an accident, but part of a structure of death and destruction," the NGO wrote.

The "pain of the World Central Kitchen family is also ours," Open Arms added, as the first humanitarian sea delivery to Gaza was a joint operation between the Catalan group and the one led by chef José Andrés.

The attack on Monday that killed seven aid workers marked a "painful inflection point" for the organization and for their efforts to "release the humanitarian crisis in Gaza." For them, these were "murders in an act of incomprehensible violence."

On March 15, after a three-day journey from Cyprus, Open Arms unloaded 200 tons of humanitarian aid in Gaza with the authorization of Israel. 

"We will never forget this moment. This is history," Open Arms said in a post on X.

In collaboration with the NGO World Central Kitchen they unloaded vital supplies, including flour, rice, lentils, chickpeas, tuna and other essentials that are expected to provide one million meals. 

Later in March, made a second trip, after the first journey in mid-March, which went from Cyprus to the Palestinian coast through a humanitarian corridor authorized by Israel.

Open Arms, a non-governmental organization founded in Badalona in 2015, focuses primarily on rescuing refugees trying to reach Europe by sea.