The Global March to Gaza is a civilian-led initiative to march from Arish, Egypt, to the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip beginning on Sunday. Once in Rafah, the goal was to set up a camp and work to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, provide humanitarian aid to the strip and protest against Israel's actions in the territory.

Egypt’s naked hostility towards the aid convoy confirms that the Arab masses are on a collision course with their leaders.

Separately, a land convoy known as “Soumoud”, which had departed Tunisia carrying activists from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, was stopped on Friday morning at the entrance to Sirte, a city in Libya under the control of forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar.