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Unicef gives stark warning amid fresh reports of casualties among desperate Palestinians seeking aid

Middle East crisis live: Ministers from Europe and Iran to hold talks; UN warns of ‘man-made drought’ in Gaza

The collapse of water systems inGazais threatening the territory with devastating drought as well as hunger, Unicef has warned, amid fresh reports of casualties among desperate Palestinians seeking aid.

On Friday at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza, according to local health authorities.

More than 100 Palestinians have died in recent days while trying either to reach aid distribution points managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive US- and Israel- backed organisation that recently started to hand out food in the territory, or to offload the limited number of UN and commercial vehicles carrying flour and some other basics.

Such reports are difficult to confirm independently but appear corroborated in many details by interviews conducted with witnesses by the Guardian.

There were also reports of other casualties on Friday in Israeli airstrikes, with at least 12 people killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in the central town of Deir al-Balah.

“Forty-three martyrs have fallen as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 26 of whom were waiting for humanitarian aid,” Mohammad al-Mughayyir, the director of medical supply at the civil defence agency in Gaza, told AFP.

Israeli military officialssaid on Fridaythat warplanes had attacked 300 “terror targets” in Gaza during the week, including individual militants, weapons caches and positions used to attack Israeli forces.

One of the strikes killed a senior militant in the territory who had helped bury the bodies of two hostages seized during the attack led by Hamas into southern Israel in October 2023 that triggered the conflict, they said.

Israeli military officials have denied troops have killed Palestinian civilians seeking aid, saying troops have fired at “suspects” who are believed to pose a threat to them.

James Elder, a Unicef spokesperson, told reporters in Geneva that he had many testimonials of women and children being injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries.

“There have been instances where information [was] shared that a [distribution] site is open, but then it’s communicated on social media that they’re closed, but that information was shared when Gaza’s internet was down and people had no access to it,” Elder said.

The GHF releases information about opening hours of sites primarily on Facebook, which many in Gaza cannot access.

Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a“critical risk of famine”.

Since the blockade was partially lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy. Many shipments have been stopped by ordinary Palestinians in Gaza and offloaded.

There is also an acute shortage of fuel, which is needed for pumps on boreholes and Gaza’s sole remaining desalination plant. None has been allowed into Gaza since the collapse of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in March.

Elder added: “We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza. Children will begin to die of thirst … Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional.”

The UN cut the operating hours of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in Gaza by a fifth in May to save fuel but reserves built up during the pause in the 20-month war are now almost exhausted, aid officials said.

Most of Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants, sewage systems, reservoirs and pipeshave been destroyed. In March, Israel cut off power supplies to the main desalination plants, a vital source of water for Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel hopes the GHF will replace the previous comprehensive system of aid distribution run by the UN, which Israeli officials claim allowed Hamas to steal and sell aid.

UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of 20-month-long war, haverejected the new system, saying it is impractical, inadequate and unethical. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas.

On Wednesday, the GHF said it had provided more than 30m meals to the people of Gaza “safely and without incident” since it began operating last month.

Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage during the 7 October 2023 attack. They still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

The death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached more than 55,600, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry.

Industry professionals gather at civil and military aircraft event further overshadowed by war between Israel and Iran

Every second summer more than 100,000 aviation industry professionals gather in Paris for an airshow – a flying display crossed with a vast conference. The mood at the latest gathering this week was more subdued than usual, after the deadly crash a week ago of a London-boundAir India flightin Ahmedabad.

Investigators have recovered the black boxfrom the plane to try to work out the cause of the disaster. The aircraft makerBoeing, and GE Aerospace, which made the 787 Dreamliner’s engines, both cancelled many of their media-facing events out of respect for the families of the 241 passengers and crew who died, as well as at least 30 more people on the ground who were killed.

At an event that presents a mix of civil and military aircraft and weaponry, the war between Israel and Iran further overshadowed proceedings.

The French government forced the show’s organisers tocover stands exhibiting Israeli companies’ weapons, an apparent show of France’s opposition to the escalation. Turbo Sjogren, the head of Boeing’s international government and defence, said several Middle Eastern military customers were unable to attend meetings because of the war.

The airshow and its British counterpart – held every other year at Farnborough, Hampshire – are usually dominated by a race between Airbus and Boeing to announce the most orders from airlines.

Yet Boeing’s string of crises, includingtwo deadly crashes of the 737 Maxin 2018 and 2019, have meant that Airbus has taken the lead for several years. The Toulouse-headquartered plane maker announced 142 firm orders plus another 102 provisional orders at the show worth a cumulative $21bn (£15.5bn), according to Cirium Ascend, the aviation consultancy.

That compared with zero orders announced by its US rival Boeing. Darren Hulst, a Boeing vice-president for commercial marketing, said: “Our hearts, our thoughts, our prayers are with all the families that have been impacted by this, as well as our partner and our long-term customer Air India.”

Before an investigation shares its findings of the cause of the Air India crash, experts have mostly declined to make a judgment of what the longer-term consequences could be for Boeing.

Yet assessments of the state of the global aviation market suggest that demand for air travel will remain buoyant. Hulst predicted that 43,600 new planes will be needed through to 2044.

“As we look to the end of this decade, by 2030, our industry will be about 45% larger than it was in the years before the pandemic,” he said.

The majority of those deliveries will be “narrowbody” planes with a single aisle, such as Airbus’s A320 and the 737 family. Other companies are positioning to take advantage of that growth. Perhaps most notably, Britain’s Rolls-Royce, now a specialist in powering the biggest “widebody” planes, wants tomake engines for the much bigger narrowbody market.

Tufan Erginbilgic, Rolls-Royce’s chief executive, told reporters that the UK government should part-fund the development of the company’s next generation of jet engines, known asUltraFan. In a direct pitch to the government, he argued that winning orders for narrowbody engines could create 40,000 jobs.

“If you look at single-aisle, narrowbody entry could be the single biggest item for economic growth for UK, because it is that big. This is a huge market, right? A £1.6tn market.”

Ahead of the UK’s industrial strategy, expected to be published on Monday, Erginbilgic argued that the government should target support at industries where the country is strongest, which he said included Rolls-Royce’s gas turbines and small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).

Rolls-Royce’s part-owned subsidiary was chosen this monthto try to build the first UK SMRs, with the first formal contract expected before October.

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“I believe any country needs to support competitively advantaged industries,” Erginbilgic said. “If you support competitively advantaged industries, your position in the market will be sustainable. Because it is already competitively advantaged. If you give some momentum, that will create lots of export growth, etc, and employment with that.”

Rolls-Royce is also a key player in the UK’s defence strategy. Erginbilgic said the government’s recent strategic defence review and pledges to increase military spending to 2.5% of GDP had “de-risked our key programmes”, all but guaranteeing demand for more nuclear reactors for attack submarines and engines for the future Tempest jet, officially known as the global combat air programme (GCAP), whosecosts are shared between the UK, Italy and Japan. Erginbilgic also said that the review’s emphasis on autonomous drones could mean future opportunities for Rolls-Royce to power them.

The UK is not the only European country rearming in response to the perceived threat from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Yet the Paris airshow also revealed deep tensions in another key European weapons project: a rival “sixth-generation” fighter jet programme between France, Germany and Spain.

Éric Trappier, chief executive of France’s Dassault, maker of the previous-generation Rafale jets that were on show in Paris, told Bloomberg TV that “we may go it alone” amid frustrations over who should lead.

Michael Schoellhorn, chief executive of Airbus’s Germany-based defence division, said that political intervention might be needed to solve the dispute.

Nevertheless, the European government consensus is that military spending must increase – particularly if the US under Donald Trump cannot be relied upon for support.

Deals at the show included Rheinmetall teaming up withcontroversial US drones startup Andurilto produce weapons in Germany, while Italy’s Leonardo formalised a joint drones venture with Turkey’s Baykar. With renewed war in the Middle East, defence bosses in Paris were keen to move quickly with manufacturing more lucrative weapons on European soil.

Top chefs in this year’s World Region of Gastronomy are looking back as they shift from avant-garde cuisine to something more homespun

They revolutionised cooking worldwide with radical techniques and a highly technical cuisine of playfultrompe l’oeil– but now many disciples of Catalonia’s iconoclastic chef Ferran Adrià believe it’s time to get back to their roots.

Catalonia has been named World Region of Gastronomy 2025 by the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism and later this month 60 Michelin-starred chefs will launch a campaign to position Catalonia as a unique and exceptional gastronomic destination.

While not rejecting the techniques of so-called molecular gastronomy introduced by Adrià at his restaurant El Bulli, with its foams, spherification and liquid nitrogen, the emphasis will be on local produce and the region’s gastronomic culture. El Bulli closed in 2011.

“Copying El Bulli is over. Now it’s become a huge repertoire of techniques that each person can apply to their cooking,” said Jordi Artal, chef at the two-starred Cinc Sentits in Barcelona. “I wouldn’t say there’s a backlash; it’s part of the natural ebb and flow. We use modern techniques but in ways that hark back to Catalan gastronomic history. That’s the ideal.”

Artal said there had always been a schism between those who believe you should only cook what’s in season and Adrià saying: “I’m an artist, find me the world’s best cherry in January so I can make my dish.”

Carme Ruscalleda said: “The concept may have changed but my cooking has always been based in the Mediterranean and its produce.” The chef was speaking in her home town of Sant Pol de Mar, next door to the restaurant where she won the first of seven Michelin stars. “We must embrace new ideas without losing sight of who we are. Catalan cuisine has Roman and Greek and medieval roots. We make many dishes that are basically medieval but with modern techniques.”

This year chefs such as the Roca brothers in Girona and Jordi Vilà in Barcelona have opened – running alongside their flagship restaurants – more modest establishments where they offer more traditional dishes.

“We are taking a broad but not a simplified view of Catalan cuisine,” said Joan Roca about Fontané, the brothers’ latest venture, where prices are well below those of El Celler de Can Roca, twice voted the best restaurant in the world.

Vilà, chef at one-starred Alkimia and the more homespun Al Kostat del Mar, said: “Joan Roca and Carme Ruscalleda have always cooked Catalan food but what happened was that what became important was what we callcocina vanguardista[avant-garde cuisine],when what really matters is to use local produce and express yourself in your cooking.

“Many young chefs don’t aspire to be Joan Roca or Ferran Adrià but want to cook the dishes their mothers or grandmothers made.”

Tradition doesn’t always come cheap, however. The tasting menus at high-end restaurants such as El Celler de Can Roca cost upwards of €200 (£170), without wine.

Oriol Castro, one of three chefs – all ex-El Bulli – behind Disfrutar, voted best restaurant in the world last year, said no one expected people to pay those sorts of prices for basic Catalan dishes.

“In Disfrutar we offer many dishes based on traditional recipes, with new techniques but traditional flavours, such as asuquet de peix[fish and potato stew] ormar i muntanya[seafood and rabbit or chicken casserole],” said Castro, who insists there is no backlash against the El Bulli school of cooking.

“People come here to eat modern, creative versions of traditional dishes. What’s important is the combination of creativity and tradition. There isn’t a war. All of us want to preserve this tradition.”

Artal said that while he was no purist, in keeping with his principles there were only Catalan and Spanish wines on his wine list. “I can’t explain to a customer that a dish was inspired by my great-grandmother and that we’re using locally sourced ingredients and then serve a wine from Bordeaux,” he said. “I love yuzu but there’s no yuzu on the menu because I couldn’t say my grandmother used yuzu.”

Everyday Catalan cuisine may be in good health outside Barcelona but in the capital it’s far easier to find ramen, sushi, hamburgers or pizza than traditional fare.

“I’m not against ramen or hamburgers, I’m against globalization,” said Vilà, who has published a humorous “self-defence manual” for Catalan cooking. “Here there are 50 ramen places and none that serveescudella,” a traditional Catalan stew containing pasta or noodles.

Ruscalleda said: “Young people are attracted to the new, so they order sushi or ceviche but they don’t know about their own culture.” She shares the view that the biggest threat to traditional cuisine everywhere is that people have stopped cooking at home.

In the meantime, it seems it is up to the culinary elite to maintain tradition, a paradox that Vilà accepts.

“We’re in a transition because the grandmothers of the future don’t want to stay at home cooking, they want to be out in the world,” he said. “Obviously, a top chef is no substitute for a grandmother, but it’s up to us keep the tradition alive.”

French charity to challenge new Channel migrant interception plans in European courts

Plans by French police to enter the sea to stop small boats carrying UK-bound asylum seekers willcause more deaths and be challenged in the European courts, a French charity has said.

Arthur Dos Santos, the coordinator of the refugee charity Utopia 56, said there would be an increase in the number of people who would take “desperate” measures to reach the UK.

The official, based in Calais, said the charity was examining the possibility of a legal challenge in the European courts to stop the tactics.

Government sources have told the Guardian that French police would be authorised to tackle boats within 300 metres of the shore and in nearby waterways.

The strategy aims to be ready in time for the Franco-British summit, which begins on 8 July. This coincides with the state visit to London of Emmanuel Macron, the French president.

Over the past few days, French police have waded into the sea to stop asylum seekers from boarding boats, increasing speculation that police are already using the tactic.

In one incident this week at Gravelines beach near Dunkirk, officers were shown waist-deep in water, using CS gas, riot shields and batons, as they attempted to force a boat to return to the beach.

Dos Santos said the French plan to harden its tactics against asylum-seekers and smugglers would result in more deaths.

“When police enter the sea, it will cause more deaths, more people will drown as they try to get away before being caught and forced back to the beach. There will be more violence, as some people fight back, and the people attempting to reach England will find other ways to try to get to the UK. This will not stop them, but it will make the crossings much more dangerous,” he said.

The scheme is intended to give the French authorities the power to halt dinghies that “taxi” up to beaches from nearby waterways. Until now, guidelines prevent French police from intervening offshore unless it is to rescue passengers in distress. In practice, the policy means officers can stop boats leaving the beach by puncturing them, but are restricted once they are in the water.

Dos Santos said the tactic would face legal challenges in the European courts, with lawyers examining human rights laws and the UN convention on the law of the sea.

“This policy will be taken to the European courts. We will look very closely at this, as will other organisations,” he said.

A British charity that operates inFrancetold the Guardian two weeks ago it planed to explore possible legal challenges to stop the tactic.

Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, said: “When the last Tory government tried to do pushbacks in the Channel, Care4Calais initiated a legal challenge and won. Any attempt to introduce interceptions in French waters must face the same level of resistance.”

In 2024, 73 people died trying to cross the Channel in small boats, more than in the previous six years combined. Nine people this year have so far been reported dead or missing in the Channel.

Nearly 17,000 people have crossed in small boats so far in 2025, according to Home Office figures, higher than at the same point in 2022, the overall record year for crossings. On Wednesday, Downing Street acknowledged that the situation in the Channel was “deteriorating”.

The French police union Unity has expressed concern that officers could face legal action if people die during an intervention.

UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter were among seven killed when vessel sank during storm last August

Mike Lynch’s superyacht, Bayesian, has been resurfaced for the first time since it sank during a violent storm off the coast of Sicily in August last year, killing seven people including the tech tycoon and his teenage daughter.

The white top and blue hull of the 56-metre (184ft) vessel emerged from the depths of the sea in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge, as salvage crews readied it to be hauled ashore for further investigation. The Italian coastguard said the recovery was scheduled to begin on Saturday morning.

A spokesperson for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation, said the vessel had been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 metres (165ft) down, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel.

The operation – which has cost approximately $30m (£22m) – was made easier after the vessel’s 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday.

The vessel will be transported to the port of Termini Imerese, where investigators are expected to examine it as part of an inquiry into the cause of the sinking.

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The Bayesian was anchored just offshore near the port of Porticello, in the province of Palermo, when it sank during a violent storm shortly before dawn on 19 August 2024.

Lynchhad beencleared two months earlier of fraud chargesin the US relating to the purchase of his company,Autonomy, by Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and was enjoying a voyage around Sicily to celebrate with his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, and his wife, Angela Baraces, whose company owned the Bayesian.

The lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, the banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, were also killed when the vessel sank. Nine other crew members and six guests – including Baraces – were rescued.

The salvage operation was very complex, and was temporarily suspended in mid-May after Rob Cornelis Maria Huijben, a 39-year-old Dutch diver, died during underwater work.

The British-based consultancy TMC Marine, which oversaw a consortium of salvage specialists undertaking the project, said the hull would be lifted on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside once it had been transported to Termini Imerese.

Investigators hope the yacht will yield vital clues to the causes of the sinking. A forensic examination of the hull will seek to determine whether one of the hatches remained open and whether the keel was improperly raised.

Prosecutors have opened an inquiry into suspected manslaughter. The boat’s captain, James Cutfield, from New Zealand, and two British crew members,Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths, have been placed under investigation. InItaly, this does not imply guilt or mean that formal charges will necessarily follow.

According to a preliminary safety report released last month by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, the Bayesian may have been vulnerable to high winds when running on its engine and that these “vulnerabilities” were “unknown to either the owner or the crew” as they were not included in the stability information book carried onboard.

The MAIB said a possible “tornadic waterspout” headed towards the boats in the harbour. The docks seemed to divert the whirlwind, which went straight towards the Bayesian, and the vessel sank in the space of a few seconds.

In September, Italian authorities requested additional security around the wreck of the Bayesian, after fears were raised that material in watertight safes onboard might be of interest to foreign governments.

Operators of trial insist age assurance ‘can be done’ but preliminary report finds age verification tools ‘not guaranteed to be effective’

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Technology to check a person’s age and ban under 16s from using social media is not “guaranteed to be effective” and face-scanning tools have given incorrect results, concede the operators of a Australian government trial of the scheme.

The tools being trialled – some involving artificial intelligence analysing voices and faces – would be improved through verification of identity documents or connection to digital wallets, those running the scheme have suggested.

The trial also found “concerning evidence” some technology providers were seeking to gather too much personal information.

As “preliminary findings” from the trial of systems meant to underpin the controversial children’s social media ban were made public on Friday, the operators insisted age assurance can work and maintain personal privacy.

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The preliminary findings did not detail the types of technology trialled or any data about its results or accuracy.Guardian Australia reported in Maythe ACCS said it had only trialled facial age estimation technology at that stage.

One of the experts involved with the trial admitted there were limitations, and that there will be incorrect results for both children and adults.

“The best-in-class reported accuracy of estimation, until this trial’s figures are published, was within one year and one month of the real age on average – so you have to design your approach with that constraint in mind,” Iain Corby, the executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association, told Guardian Australia.

Tony Allen, the project director, said most of the programs had an accuracy of “plus or minus 18 months” regarding age – which he admitted was not “foolproof” but would be helpful in lowering risk.

The Albanese federal government’splan to ban under 16s from social media, rushed through parliament last year, will come into effect in December.

The government trial of age assurance systems is critical to the scheme. The legislation does not explicitly say how platforms should enforce the law and the government is assessing more than 50 companies whose technologies could help verify that a user is over 16.

The ABCreported on Thursdayteenage children in the trial were identified by some of the software as being aged in their 20s and 30s, and that face-scanning technology was only 85% accurate in picking a user’s age within an 18-month range. But Allen said the trial’s final report would give more detailed data about its findings and the accuracy of the technology tested.

The trial is being run by the Age Check Certification Scheme and testing partner KJR. It was due to present a report to government on the trial’s progress in June but thathas been delayed until the end of July. On Friday, the trial published a two-page summary of “preliminary findings” and broad reflections before what it said would be a final report of “hundreds of pages” to the new communications minister, Anika Wells.

The summary said a “plethora of options” were available, with “careful, critical thinking by providers” on privacy and security concerns. It concluded that “age assurance can be done in Australia”.

The summary praised some approaches that it said handled personal data and privacy well. But it also found what it called “concerning evidence” that some providers were seeking to collect too much data.

“Some providers were found to be building tools to enable regulators, law enforcement or coroners to retrace the actions taken by individuals to verify their age, which could lead to increased risk of privacy breaches due to unnecessary and disproportionate collection and retention of data,” it said.

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In documents shared to schools taking part in the study, program operators said it would trial technologies including “AI-powered technology such as facial analysis, voice analysis, or analysis of hand movements to estimate a person’s age”, among other methods such as checking forms of ID.

Stakeholdershave raised concerns about how children may circumvent the banby fooling the facial recognition, or getting older siblings or parents to help them.

Friday’s preliminary findings said various schemes could fit different situations and there was no “single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases” nor any one solution “guaranteed to be effective in all deployments”.

The report also said there were “opportunities for technological improvement” in the systems trialled, including making it easier to use and lowering risk.

This could include “blind” verification of government documents, via services such as digital wallets.

Corby said the trial must “manage expectations” about effectiveness of age assurance, saying “the goal should be to stop most underage users, most of the time”.

“You can turn up the effectiveness but that comes at a cost to the majority of adult users, who’d have to prove their age more regularly than they would tolerate,” he said.

Corby said the trial was working on risks of children circumventing the systems and that providers were “already well-placed” to address basic issues such as the use of VPNs and fooling the facial analysis.

Ex-partner of former premier Gladys Berejiklian misled Icac probe over $48m property development, magistrate finds

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Ex-Liberal MP Daryl Maguire has been found guilty of misleading a corruption inquiry about benefits expected from a $48m property development sale.

The former member for Wagga Wagga, whose clandestine relationship with ex-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian led to herpolitical downfall, appeared at Sydney’s Downing Centre court for the verdict on Friday.

Magistrate Clare Farnan found Maguire misled the NSWIndependent Commission Against Corruptionwhile giving evidence during a hearing in July 2018.

Farnan rejected a bid by Maguire’s legal team to suppress the publication of the guilty verdict.

“The interests of the community in open justice is in my view not outweighed by Mr Maguire’s interests,” she said.

At Icac, Maguire was asked about what he expected to get out of the sale of an estimated $48m property development in Campsie in Sydney’s south-west.

During the criminal hearing earlier in 2025, prosecutors claimed Maguire changed his evidence during questioning over claims he was not expected to be reimbursed.

He will face a sentence hearing on 15 August.

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Icac grilled Maguire and others in 2018 underOperation Dasha, which probed allegations of corruption at the local council.

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The Wagga Wagga MP resigned from the Berejiklian government after giving evidence, before succumbing to pressure and quitting parliament altogether.

Icac opened a further probe into Maguire, exposing his secret romantic relationship with Berejiklian in 2020.

Berejiklian also stood down from her role and was laterfound by Icac to have breached public trustin failing to disclose the relationship, spanning at least five years while she was transport minister, treasurer and then premier.

Committee seeking warrants for staff from premier and police minister’s offices, but they insist they had ‘reasonable excuse or just cause’ not to attend

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A parliamentary committee is seeking warrants for the arrest of five New South Wales government staffers who failed to appear and give evidence to an inquiry examining the Sydneycaravan “fake terrorism plot”.

The staffers – three from the office of the premier,Chris Minns, and two who work for the police minister, Yasmin Catley – were summoned to appear before the inquiry on Friday.

They did not attend. The staffers claimed – in a letter to the upper house committee chair, independent MP Rod Roberts – that they had the “reasonable excuse or just cause” required by law to not appear.

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The staff members argued they were “proxies” because Minns and Catley could not, as members of the lower house, be compelled to appear as witnesses.

The inquiry – launched with the support of the Coalition, the Greens and crossbench MLCs – isexamining the handling of informationabout the caravan plot amid concerns whether parliament was “misled” beforecontroversial laws aimed at curbing antisemitismwere rushed through parliament.

In January, after it was announced that the caravan had been found in Dural laden with explosives, Minns said it had the potential to be a “mass casualty event”. But in March, the Australian federal police revealed they believed it was a “con job” by organised crime figures seeking to divert police resources and influence prosecutions.

Minns has said he was briefed early on that the caravan plot “could be something other than terrorism as it’s classically defined and that no line of inquiry was being ruled out by NSW police”.

The premier and the police minister refused to appear at the inquiry before the committee sought the appearance of their staffers.

Friday’s extraordinary decision to seek the arrest warrants could lead to the staffers being apprehended and brought before the committee to give evidence, but several steps have to be completed first.

Roberts will meet with the president of the Legislative Council, Nationals MP Ben Franklin, on Friday afternoon to submit the committee’s case.

Under the Parliamentary Evidence Act, if the president is satisfied that the five staffers failed to appear without just cause or reasonable excuse, the matter will be referred to a judge of the supreme court.

If the judge agrees, then warrants would be issued, the staffers arrested and brought before the committee to give evidence.

“This decision follows numerous attempts by the committee over several weeks to secure the attendance of these staff by invitation and ultimately by summons,” Roberts said in a statement.

The staffers summoned to appear included Minns’ chief of staff, James Cullen, and two of his deputy chiefs of staff, Edward Ovadia and Sarah Michael.

The police minister’s chief of staff, Ross Neilson, was also summoned, along with Catley’s deputy chief of staff, Tilly South.

The staffers’ letter to Roberts, released by the committee, stated: “Our attendance before the select committee to give evidence would be at odds with the principles of ministerial accountability and comity between the houses of parliament.”

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They pointed to an outstanding inquiry on parliamentary privilege and ethics, stating they suspected in light “of recent events” it would consider whether compelling ministerial staff to give evidence infringed parliamentary privilege or “offends principles” of Australia’s Westminster system of government.

“In these circumstances, and particularly while the standing committee’s inquiries are ongoing, we consider that there is a reasonable excuse or just cause for us to not attend the hearing, and we propose not to do so,” they wrote on Thursday.

“Given your [Roberts’] comments on breakfast radio yesterday as to the motivation for issuing the summonses, which make it clear we are ‘proxies’ because our respective ministers cannot be compelled as witnesses to the select committee, we also consider that they have not been properly issued.”

The letter noted Ovadia had informed the committee he was on leave during the relevant period.

Minns told reporters on Thursday that his staff would not appear. On Friday morning, Roberts conducted a roll call twice to empty chairs set out for the staffers before closing the hearing.

Earlier in the week, the premier told 2GB radio he believed the inquiry was based on a “giant conspiracy” led by his political opponents.

Minns said summoning staffers to appear was a “bid for some kind of relevance” by opponents.

Asked if his staffers were prepared to be arrested, Minns said: “Well, I hope it doesn’t get to that. I mean, I think that would be a giant overreach. It’s never happened before.”

The NSW Liberal leader, Mark Speakman, was asked by reporters on Friday if the move was drastic.

“It is drastic and it’s easily avoidable if they do the right thing, obey the law and appear,” he said. Minns and Catley were contacted for comment.

The education minister,Jason Clare, has launched an “unprecedented” intervention into the leadership of the Australian National University (ANU) by writing to the vice-chancellor and referring governance and management concerns to the higher education regulator.The move follows continued backlash over the university’s leadership decisions, including an ongoing restructure that would shed more than 600 jobs to make savings of $250m.

In March, more than 800 ANU staff passed a no-confidence motion in the leadership of the vice-chancellor,Prof Genevieve Bell, and the chancellor, Julie Bishop.Clare said following “significant concerns” raised by Labor colleagues he had written to ANU on 6 June “seeking assurances that they are managing these issues appropriately”. He had also forwarded criticisms raised by independent senatorDavid Pocockto TEQSA.At a town hall meeting held by Pocock on Wednesday, he accused management of “trashing” the university over its handling of the restructure, including breaching its enterprise agreement, and giving wrong information to the Senate.The ANU was approached for comment.