Galloway was attempting to join the convoy after he heard around 520 people were travelling with the 150 trucks when Egyptian forces attacked the convoy, reportedly injuring the British delegations. Mr Galloway had been trying to return to Rafah after news broke that seven of the convoy members had been arrested.

Galloway was part of a large group of Western activists who have been traveling from Britain for nearly a month and had entered the crossing on Wednesday. An earlier statement said they were expected to spend forty-eight hours distributing the aid supplies and offer relief to the people of Gaza who are suffering severe repression and are living under a campaign of planned deprivation. The event of George Galloway's arrest has if anything, created some corporate media attention to the Viva Palestine convoy, which is highlighting the human rights abuses and the deliberate prevention of aid delivery into Gaza by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities.

Between June and November 2006 the Rafah crossing was closed by Israel on 86% of days due to 'security reasons'. It was not opened for the export of goods. In June 2007, it was closed entirely after Hamas succeeded in elections in the Gaza Strip. On January 23rd 2008 a group demolished the wall dividing the Egyptian and Palestinian portions of Rafah and several hundred thousand Gazans entered Egypt, most of them to buy food and supplies. On December 27, 2008, Egypt opened the crossing to care for the wounded after "Operation Cast Lead" left over a thousand people dead and many more wounded in Gaza. Most of the dead and wounded were civilians.

Since the end of the Israeli assault on Gaza the Egyptian state has been doing the dirty work of Israel by restricting the flow of supplies to Gaza to make it appear as if the Israeli state is not culpable.