The second Gaza Sumud flotilla boat which arrived in Cyprus in the space of 24 hours on Friday is to depart from Cyprus on Saturday, according to a representative of the ports authority.

The boat, named the Shireen, docked at the Paphos harbour at around 5pm on Friday afternoon.

The ports authority representative told the Cyprus News Agency that after arriving in Paphos, an engineer who had been on board carried out some repairs to the boat, while some other crew members “expressed a desire to abandon ship and leave”.

As such, they said, the crew is “expected to change”, with some of the original crew set to leave by air, and others expected to arrive in Paphos and board the boat before it departs.

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They added that the original crew had been provided with food, water, electricity, and fuel, while two of them were provided with first aid by an ambulance crew which arrived on the scene.

Meanwhile, ports authority director-general Anthimos Christodoulides said the boat’s crew had originally wished to dock at the port of Latchi, but had been unable to do so as there was no available space there.

He added that once it arrived in Paphos on Friday afternoon, “all its papers and certificates” were checked, and “since everything was legal, it was accepted for it to dock in Paphos”.

“We have checked all the documents and certificates of the vessel and established that they are complete and valid,” he said.

The Gaza Sumud flotilla was a group of more than 50 boats which attempted to break the Israel’s naval blockade and provide humanitarian aid directly to the Gaza strip.

Israel intercepted the boats and detained their crews, with the Gaza Sumud flotilla reporting on Friday morning that 443 people had been detained, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

According to the BBC, the first boats were stopped a total of 70 nautical miles (130 kilometres) from the Gazan coast, firmly in international waters, with the Gaza Sumud flotilla describing those interceptions as “illegal”.

Israel had told the boats to change course as they were “approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful naval blockade”.

The interception of the boats and detention of the crews sparked protests around the world, including in Cyprus, where demonstrators gathered outside the foreign ministry in Nicosia and clashed with the police, who deployed pepper spray.

Meanwhile, the members of the flotilla who had been detained were taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where they were met by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

According to Palestinian news agency the Quds news network, Ben-Gvir berated them, saying their boats were “found completely empty”, accusing them of not carrying any humanitarian aid, as had been the stated aim of their mission.

“They didn’t really come … to help. They came for Gaza, for the terrorists. These are terrorists,” he is quoted as having said.

Earlier on the flotilla’s voyage, a proposal had been made for the flotilla in its entirety to deliver the aid to Cyprus and allow the Catholic church to distribute it to Gaza.

The proposal had been made by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem having been lined up to deliver the aid to Gaza, but the flotilla rejected it, saying they wished to sail directly to Gaza.

On Wednesday night, the foreign ministries of Greece and Italy had made a final joint appeal to the flotilla to change course and head for Cyprus, hours before Israel began to intercept the ships.

This decision angered Meloni on Thursday, who said of the flotilla that “I continue to believe that this all brings no benefit to the Palestinian people.”

On Thursday night, the first of the two boats to dock in Cyprus arrived on the island, docking at the Larnaca port.