Galloway: Lifeline 5 achieved its goals

BEIRUT, — Former British MP George Galloway, the founder and head of the Viva Palestina organization, said on Tuesday that the Lifeline 5 aid convoy to the Gaza Strip had achieved great success.

He said during a seminar organized by the civil campaign to support Palestine and Iraq in Beirut that his organization had many future plans including organizing Lifeline 6 aid convoy.

For his part, Kevin Ovenden, who led the convoy into Gaza after Egypt denied Galloway access, said that the convoy went through Rafah border crossing and not through an Israeli terminal as the American New York Times had said.

Ovenden described the Egyptian authorities’ decision to ban entry of Galloway along with 17 other activists into its territory en route to Gaza as "regretful, sad, and wrong".

He said that it was the first time such a huge amount of aid managed to enter Gaza, noting that some of the assistance was requested by Gazan institutions such as cancer medicines.