Category: 2. World

When the preliminary report into the crash of Air India Flight 171 – which killed 260 people in June – was released, many hoped it would bring some measure of closure.

Instead, the 15-page report further stoked speculation. For, despite the measured tone of the report, one detail continues to haunt investigators, aviation analysts and the public alike.

Seconds after take-off, both fuel-control switches on the 12-year-old Boeing 787 abruptly moved to “cut-off”, cutting fuel to the engines and causing total power loss – a step normally done only after landing.

The cockpit voice recording captures one pilot asking the other why “did he cut-off”, to which the person replies that he didn’t. The recording doesn’t clarify who said what. At the time of take-off, the co-pilot was flying the aircraft while the captain was monitoring.

The switches were returned to their normal inflight position, triggering automatic engine relight. At the time of the crash, one engine was regaining thrust while the other had relit but had not yet recovered power. The plane was airborne for less than a minute before crashing into a neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Several speculative theories have emerged since the preliminary report – a full report is expected in a year or so.

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters news agency have reported that “new details in the probe of last month’s Air India crash are shifting the focus to the senior pilot in the cockpit”.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera claimed that its sources had told them the first officer repeatedly asked the captain why he “shut off the engines”.

Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was the captain on the flight, while Clive Kunder, 32, was the co-pilot who was flying the plane. Together, the two pilots had more than 19,000 hours of flight experience – nearly half of it on the Boeing 787. Both had passed all pre-flight health checks before the crash.

Understandably, the wave of speculative leaks has rattled investigators and angered Indian pilots.

Last week, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), the lead investigator, stated in a release that “certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting”. It described these “actions [as] irresponsible, especially while the investigation remains ongoing”.

Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the US’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is assisting the investigation, said on X that the media reports were “premature and speculative” and that “investigations of this magnitude take time”.

Back in India, the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association condemned the rush to blame the crew as “reckless” and “deeply insensitive”, urging restraint until the final report is out.

Sam Thomas, head of the Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India), told the BBC that “speculation has triumphed over transparency”, emphasising the need to review the aircraft’s maintenance history and documentation alongside the cockpit voice recorder data.

At the heart of the controversy is the brief cockpit recording in the report – the full transcript, expected in the final report, should shed clearer light on what truly happened.

A Canada-based air accident investigator, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that the excerpt of the conversation in the report presents several possibilities.

For example, “if pilot ‘B’ was the one who operated the switches – and did so unwittingly or unconsciously – it’s understandable that they would later deny having done it,” the investigator said.

“But if pilot ‘A’ operated the switches deliberately and with intent, he may have posed the question knowing full well that the cockpit voice recorder would be scrutinised, and with the aim of deflecting attention and avoiding identification as the one responsible.

“Even if the AAIB is eventually able to determine who said what, that doesn’t decisively answer the question ‘Who turned the fuel off?’”.

“We may even never know the answer to that question.”

Investigators told the BBC that while there appeared to be strong evidence the fuel switches were manually turned off, it’s still important to keep “an open mind”.

A glitch in the plane’s Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system – which monitors engine health and performance – could, in theory, trigger an automatic shutdown if it receives false signals from sensors, some pilots suggest.

However, if the pilot’s exclamation – ‘why did you cut-off [the fuel]?’ – came after the switches moved to cut-off (as noted in the preliminary report), it would undermine that theory. The final report will likely include time-stamped dialogue and a detailed analysis of engine data to clarify this.

Speculation has been fuelled less by who said what, and more by what wasn’t said.

The preliminary report withheld the full cockpit voice recorder (CVR) transcript, revealing only a single, telling line from the final moments.

This selective disclosure has raised questions: was the investigation team confident about the speakers’ identities but chose to withhold the rest out of sensitivity? Or are they still uncertain whose voices they were hearing and needed more time to fully investigate the matter before publishing any conclusions?

Peter Goelz, former NTSB managing director, says the AAIB should release a voice recorder transcript with pilot voices identified.

“If any malfunctions began during take-off, they would be recorded in the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and would likely have triggered alerts in the flight management system – alerts the crew would almost certainly have noticed and, more importantly, discussed.”

Investigators are urging restraint in drawing conclusions.

“We have to be cautious because it’s easy to assume that if the switches were turned off, it must mean intentional action – pilot error, suicide, or something else. And that’s a dangerous path to go down with the limited information we have,” Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline accident investigator and aviation expert at Ohio State University, told the BBC.

At the same time, alternative theories continue to circulate.

Indian newspapers including the Indian Express flagged a possible electrical fire in the tail as a key focus. But the preliminary report makes clear: the engines shut down because both fuel switches were moved to cut-off – a fact backed by recorder data. If a tail fire occurred, it likely happened post-impact, triggered by spilled fuel or damaged batteries, an independent investigator said.

Last week, AAIB chief GVG Yugandhar stressed that the preliminary report aims to “provide information about ‘WHAT’ happened”.

“It’s too early for definite conclusions,” he said, emphasising the investigation is ongoing and the final report will identify “root causes and recommendations”. He also pledged to share updates on “technical or public interest matters” as they arise.

Summing up, Mr Pruchnicki said the probe “boils down to two possibilities – either deliberate action or confusion, or an automation-related issue”.

“The report doesn’t rush to blame human error or intent; there’s no proof it was done intentionally,” he added.

In other words, no smoking gun – just an uneasy wait for answers that may never even fully emerge.

HONG KONG: China’s Premier Li Qiang announced construction had begun on what will be the world’s largest hydropower dam, on the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau, at an estimated cost of at least $170 billion, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Commencement of the hydropower project, China’s most ambitious since the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze, was seized by Chinese markets as proof of economic stimulus, sending stock prices and bond yields higher on Monday.

Made up of five cascade hydropower stations with the capacity to produce 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, equal to the amount of electricity consumed by Britain last year, the dam will be located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo. A section of the river tumbles 2,000 metres in a span of 50km, offering huge hydropower potential.

India and Bangladesh have already raised concerns about its possible impact on the millions of people downstream, while NGOs warned of the risk to one of the richest and most diverse environments on the plateau.

India, Bangladesh raise concerns about dam’s possible impact on millions of people downstream

Beijing has said the dam will help meet power demand in Tibet and the rest of China without having a major effect on downstream water supplies or the environment. Operations are expected sometime in the 2030s.

Broader impact

The Chinese premier described the dam as a “project of the century” and said special emphasis “must be placed on ecological conservation to prevent environmental damage,” Xinhua said.

Government bond yields rose across the board, with the most-traded 30-year treasury futures falling to five-week lows, as investors interpreted the news as part of China’s economic stimulus. The project marks a major boost in public investment to help bolster economic growth as current drivers show signs of faltering.

“Assuming 10 years of construction, the investment/GDP boost could reach 120 billion yuan ($16.7 billion) for a single year,” said Citi in a note. “The actual economic benefits could go beyond that.” China has not given an estimate on the number of jobs the project could create.

The Three Gorges, which took alm­ost two decades to complete, generated nearly a million jobs, state media reported, though it displaced at least a similar number of people. Authorities have not indicated how many people would be displaced by the Yarlung Zangbo project.

The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra River as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India and finally into Bangladesh. NGOs say the dam will irreversibly harm the Tibetan Plateau and hit millions of people downstream.

The chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu, said earlier this year that such a colossal dam barely 50km from the border could dry out 80pc of the river passing through the Indian state while potentially inundating downstream areas in Arunachal and neighbouring Assam state. Some experts also express concerns for a project in a seismically active zone.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

MUMBAI: An Indian court acquitted on Monday 12 men previously convicted for a series of bomb blasts that ripped through packed commuter trains in Mumbai in 2006 that killed 187 people.

The men were convicted in 2015 of murder, conspiracy, and waging war against the country over the attacks during the evening rush hour of July 11, 2006 that also injured more than 800 people. Five were sentenced to death, while the other seven were given life imprisonment.

But, 10 years later, the Bombay High Court set aside a lower court’s verdict and acquitted the 12 men. Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said in their judgement, the prosecution had “utterly failed to establish the offence beyond the reasonable doubt against the accused on each count”.

The men were ordered to be released from jail “if they are not required to be detained in any other case”. The prosecution can appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

A total of seven blasts ripped through the trains after the bombs, packed into pressure cookers, were placed in bags

and hidden under newspapers and umbrellas. Prosecutors said the devices were assembled in Mumbai and deliberately placed in first-class coaches to target the city’s wealthy Gujarati community.

They said the bombings were intended as revenge for the riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, which left some 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. Prosecutors accused Lashkar-e-Taiba of being behind the attacks, although a little-known outfit called the Lashkar-e-Qahhar later claimed responsibility.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

SWEIDA: Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people.

The violence, which followed massacres of Alawis in March and clashes involving the Druze in April and May, has shaken the rule of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to protect minorities in a country devastated by 14 years of war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the ceasefire was largely holding despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city, with no new reports of casualties.

A correspondent saw a convoy of buses and other vehicles enter the provincial capital and exit carrying civilians, including women and children. State news agency SANA quoted the governor of neighbouring Daraa, Anwar al-Zubi, as saying his province had “received about 200 Bedouin families who had been detained in Sweida”, sending them to local shelters.

Ceasefire holds despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida

The ceasefire announced on Saturday put an end to the sectarian violence that killed more than 1,260 people — about 800 of them Druze fighters and civilians, including nearly 200 noncombatants “summarily executed” by government forces, according to the Observatory. The toll also includes more than 400 government security personnel.

Fatima Abdel-Qader, 52, a Bedouin who was leaving the city on foot, said her family had been surrounded during the fighting, “unable to leave or come back — anyone who wanted to go out risked gunfire and clashes”. “We were afraid that someone would come to our home and kill us all,” she said, adding they had no way of getting food or water.

Damascus has accused Druze groups of attacking and killing Bedouins during the clashes, which broke out on July 13 after a Druze vegetable seller was kidnapped by local Bedouins, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory’s toll includes 35 Bedouins, three of them civilians executed by Druze fighters. The Druze and Bedouin tribes have had tense relations for decades.

‘Unthinkable’

Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses when they entered Sweida last week. Sunni Arab tribes also converged on the area in support of the Bedouin.

The ceasefire effectively began on Sunday after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city and Druze groups regained control.

The US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said on Monday that what had happened in Sweida was “unthinkable”. “You have a Syrian government in effect. They need to be held accountable,” he told a press conference on a visit to neighbouring Lebanon.

The weekend ceasefire announcement came hours after Barrack said the United States had negotiated a truce between Syrian authorities and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.

Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria’s south.

The deal allowed the deployment of government security forces in Sweida province but not its main city.

A correspondent said security forces had erected sand mounds to block some of Sweida’s entrances. Tribal fighters were sitting on the roadside beyond the checkpoints.

Aid convoy

At the main hospital in Sweida city, dozens of bodies were still waiting to be identified, with a forensic medicine official at the facility saying “we still have 97 unidentified corpses”.

According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.

More than 450 of the dead had been brought to the Sweida national hospital by Sunday evening, with more still being recovered from the streets and homes.

“The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital,” said nurse Hisham Breik, who had not left the facility since the violence began.

“The situation has been terrible. We couldn’t walk around the hospital without wearing a mask,” he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office said hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with “reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns”.

Humanitarian access to Sweida “remains highly constrained”, it said in a statement late Sunday. On Sunday, a first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city, which has seen power and water cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies. A Red Crescent official said the supplies included body bags.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

KARACHI: The Hyderabad district administration has claimed that majority of roads and public areas in Hyderabad were effectively cleared of accumulated rainwater.

Responding to a Dawn report headlined “Six people killed during widespread rains in most districts of Sindh”, the Hyderabad deputy commissioner while mentioning the administration’s dewatering efforts, said in a statement: “A prompt and coordinated response led by DC and Hyderabad mayor was initiated at 7am during which priority was laid on restoration of electricity supply and operationalisation of all pumping stations which was completed by noon.”

“It is acknowledged that small pockets of water remain in some low-lying areas. These are being systematically addressed as of 21st July through ongoing efforts,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

SWEIDA: Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people.

The violence, which followed massacres of Alawis in March and clashes involving the Druze in April and May, has shaken the rule of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to protect minorities in a country devastated by 14 years of war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the ceasefire was largely holding despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city, with no new reports of casualties.

A correspondent saw a convoy of buses and other vehicles enter the provincial capital and exit carrying civilians, including women and children. State news agency SANA quoted the governor of neighbouring Daraa, Anwar al-Zubi, as saying his province had “received about 200 Bedouin families who had been detained in Sweida”, sending them to local shelters.

Ceasefire holds despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida

The ceasefire announced on Saturday put an end to the sectarian violence that killed more than 1,260 people — about 800 of them Druze fighters and civilians, including nearly 200 noncombatants “summarily executed” by government forces, according to the Observatory. The toll also includes more than 400 government security personnel.

Fatima Abdel-Qader, 52, a Bedouin who was leaving the city on foot, said her family had been surrounded during the fighting, “unable to leave or come back — anyone who wanted to go out risked gunfire and clashes”. “We were afraid that someone would come to our home and kill us all,” she said, adding they had no way of getting food or water.

Damascus has accused Druze groups of attacking and killing Bedouins during the clashes, which broke out on July 13 after a Druze vegetable seller was kidnapped by local Bedouins, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory’s toll includes 35 Bedouins, three of them civilians executed by Druze fighters. The Druze and Bedouin tribes have had tense relations for decades.

‘Unthinkable’

Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses when they entered Sweida last week. Sunni Arab tribes also converged on the area in support of the Bedouin.

The ceasefire effectively began on Sunday after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city and Druze groups regained control.

The US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said on Monday that what had happened in Sweida was “unthinkable”. “You have a Syrian government in effect. They need to be held accountable,” he told a press conference on a visit to neighbouring Lebanon.

The weekend ceasefire announcement came hours after Barrack said the United States had negotiated a truce between Syrian authorities and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.

Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria’s south.

The deal allowed the deployment of government security forces in Sweida province but not its main city.

A correspondent said security forces had erected sand mounds to block some of Sweida’s entrances. Tribal fighters were sitting on the roadside beyond the checkpoints.

Aid convoy

At the main hospital in Sweida city, dozens of bodies were still waiting to be identified, with a forensic medicine official at the facility saying “we still have 97 unidentified corpses”.

According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.

More than 450 of the dead had been brought to the Sweida national hospital by Sunday evening, with more still being recovered from the streets and homes.

“The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital,” said nurse Hisham Breik, who had not left the facility since the violence began.

“The situation has been terrible. We couldn’t walk around the hospital without wearing a mask,” he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office said hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with “reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns”.

Humanitarian access to Sweida “remains highly constrained”, it said in a statement late Sunday. On Sunday, a first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city, which has seen power and water cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies. A Red Crescent official said the supplies included body bags.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

LONDON: Britain and 24 West­ern allies, including Australia, Canada, France and Italy, declared on Monday that the war in Gaza “must end now”, arguing that civilians’ suffering had reached new depths as Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday.

“We urge the parties and the international community to unite in a common effort to bring this terrible conflict to an end, through an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” the grouping added in a joint statement.

“Further bloodshed serves no purpose. We reaffirm our complete support to the efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt to achieve this.” The signatories, which also included Japan, several EU countries, Switzerland and New Zealand, added they were “prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire”.

The statement branded the controversial Israeli-supported aid in Gaza as “dangerous” and said it deprives people of ‘human dignity’. “We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” the statement said.

In a joint statement, 25 states say denial of essential assistance to people is ‘unacceptable’

“The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” it added, urging Israel to “comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law”.

The statement called for the Israeli government “to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively”.

The UN said last week that it had recorded 875 people who had been killed in Gaza while trying to get food via the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The 25-nation statement also condemned the continued detention of Israeli prisoners by Hamas, demanding “their immediate and unconditional release” and noting that a negotiated ceasefire “offers the best hope of bringing them home”.

Meanwhile, the signatories said they “strongly oppose any steps towards territorial or demographic change in the Occupied Palestinian Territories” and said an Israeli plan to shift Palestinians into a so-called “humanitarian city” was unacceptable.

“Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law,” they warned.

The statement was also signed by EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib.

Israel sends tanks into Deir al-Balah

Israeli tanks pushed into southern and eastern districts of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah for the first time on Monday, an area where Israeli military claimed Israeli prisoners may be held.

The area is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and capabilities of Hamas.

Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.

To the south in Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed at least five people, including a husband and wife and their two children in a tent, medics said.

In its daily update, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

TEHRAN: Iran said it will host China and Russia on Tuesday for talks on its nuclear programme, amid European threats to reimpose sanctions.

“A trilateral consultation” with Russia and China would be held in the Iranian capital to discuss nuclear issues and the potential reimposition of sanctions, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei told a news conference on Monday.

He accused the West of failing to respect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “The European parties have been at fault and negligent in implementing” the nuclear agreement, Mr Baqaei said.

The three European countries have warned that sanctions could be reimposed on Iran if it does return to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.

Blames Western powers for not respecting 2015 deal

Iran confirmed fresh talks with European powers will be held on Friday in Istanbul.

Iranian diplomats will meet counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3.

“In response to the request of European countries, Iran has agreed to hold a new round of talks,” said the foreign ministry spokesperson.

A German diplomatic source said on Sunday the E3 were in contact with Tehran.

“Iran must never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon. That is why Germany, France and the United Kingdom are continuing to work intensively in the E3 format to find a sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme,” the source said.

Kremlin meeting

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a surprise meeting in the Kremlin with Ali Larijani, top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader on nuclear issues.

Larijani “conveyed assessments of the escalating situation in the Middle East and around the Iranian nuclear programme”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the meeting.

Putin had expressed Russia’s “well-known positions on how to stabilise the situation in the region and on the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear programme”, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

The thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza from Israel’s bombing campaign are “indefensible”, minister Tony Burke has said, after Australia joined 27 other countries condemning Israel for denying humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

The international statement – signed by Australia, the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand and Japan among others – warned “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”.

It expressed horror at the deaths of hundreds of people at aid distribution sites through Gaza, and demanded Israel comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity. We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,” the statement said.

“It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable.”

The statement pleads for the end of the war in Gaza and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli hostages “cruelly held captive by Hamas since 7 October 2023 [who] continue to suffer terribly”.

“A negotiated ceasefire offers the best hope of bringing them home and ending the agony of their families.”

Burke, Australia’s home affairs minister, said Australia wanted to see the war stop.

“We’ve seen too many images of children being killed, of horrific slaughter, of churches being bombed. The images that we’ve seen have been pretty clear that so much of this is indefensible and – as that statement referred to – aid being drip-fed in,” he told the ABC on Tuesday.

On Monday, Israel launched substantial air raids and a ground operation in Gaza, targeting Deir al-Balah, the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated Palestinian territory, amid warnings of widening starvation.

The latest assault began a day after the highest death toll in 21 months inflicted by the Israeli military on desperate Palestinians seeking food aid, with at least 85 killed in what has become a grim and almost daily slaughter.

The UN food agency, the World Food Programme, said the majority of those killed on Sunday had gathered near the border fence with Israel in the hope of getting flour from a UN aid convoy when they were fired on by Israeli tanks and snipers.

But the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, claimed “the most important thing” to note was the continuing detention of Israeli citizens by Hamas.

“Of course we want to see aid reach those who deserve it, but it is so important that Hamas, that has control, often over the flow of that aid, but certainly over the ongoing, completely unacceptable detention of those hostages, act in the interests of the people of Gaza,” she said.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said it valued the “principled collective stance” but urged the countries to “translate these principled positions into practical and concrete actions”.

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While the Greens initially welcomed the statement, with reservations about its impact on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the minor party’s deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, used a rally outside Parliament House to condemn the Albanese government as “heartless and gutless cowards”.

“To be honest, I have never seen such moral cowardice in my whole life than I see in there, in that parliament, because nothing has moved,” she told an audience of hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters.

“Nothing has moved these heartless and gutless cowards and politicians in that building, week after week, headline after headline, homes flattened, refugee camps bombed, aid convoys attacked. Entire families have been wiped out.”

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli foreign ministry rejected the joint statement, saying: “Hamas is the sole party responsible for the continuation of the war and the suffering on both sides. At these sensitive moments in the ongoing negotiations, it is better to avoid statements of this kind.”

Amir Maimon, Israel’s ambassador to Australia, wrote on X: “Israel rejects the joint statement published by a group of countries, including Australia, as it is disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas.”

Federal parliament returns on Tuesday, with rallies and events to be held in Canberra calling on the government to do more to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza. A coalition of aid groups including Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières will hold a 24-hour vigil where speakers will read the names of more than 17,000 Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The Greens senator David Shoebridge is also expected to table an open letter to Anthony Albanese from more than 2,500 healthcare workers from across Australia urging stronger action to address the humanitarian crisis.

Responding to the international joint statement, Shoebridge wrote on X that it was “a welcome, if extremely late, step”.

The independent senator David Pocock wrote: “While welcome, we need more than words from the international community to stop the killing of civilians in Gaza, especially those seeking aid.”