Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade
Engagement with UNRWA Deputy Director John Whyte
2:00 am
Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)
Following up on Gaza City, as I understand it, half of the medical infrastructure - certainly intensive care and hospitals - is mainly in Gaza City. How much of an escalation in the health component of the humanitarian crisis would it be when we see Gaza City specifically pushed down? I also asked about water, the situation in that regard and how that is being found, supplied and moved around.
Mr. Whyte mentioned the robot tanks a number of times. On this idea of effectively automated killing either through the algorithmic targeting or the robotic tanks, will Mr. Whyte comment on the mechanisation of some of these and the impact it has on civilians? We know that is an area, with things like the dual-use technologies where there is a focus, and probably needs to be more of a focus, on the technologies facilitating these actions.
I know the West Bank is not his area but Mr. Whyte might have a colleague or others who could comment on that. He mentioned this could be happening elsewhere and if we allow this to happen, it changes the bar for what is considered in any way acceptable or possible and the danger of these kinds of scenes being extrapolated not only to the West Bank but maybe elsewhere internationally. He might also comment on that.
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