The head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency has been lobbying for the United States' support in displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Friday.
Mossad head David Barnea visited Washington this week to discuss Israel's plan to "transfer" Palestinians from the enclave, and requested that the US encourage other states to accept hundreds of thousands, Israel's Channel 12 reported, citing two sources familiar with the discussions.
Israel has claimed that the transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza would be "voluntary", while human rights groups and UN experts have slammed the plans as ethnic cleansing and a war crime.
The sources said that Barnea told US envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel was in talks with Indonesia, Ethiopia and Libya regarding the transfer plan, with those states being named as potential hosts for the expelled Palestinians.
Barnea claimed, according to the sources, that the three countries "expressed their willingness to consider" accepting large numbers of Palestinians. The Mossad chief asked the US to help persuade those countries and offer incentives for them to agree.
Witkoff did not make any commitments during the meeting, according to one of the sources.
Last February, US President Donald Trump announced his controversial Gaza expulsion plan, which would see the enclave's population expelled and the territory occupied by the US. Gaza would then be developed economically by the US, Trump said.
Trump's plan has not advanced, with US officials saying that enthusiasm for the it has dimmed in Washington due to strong Arab opposition, according to the Hebrew-language channel.
Israeli officials say that the US administration has made it clear to Israel that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to advance the idea, Israel must find countries willing to absorb Palestinians from Gaza.
During Trump and Netanyahu's meeting in Washington last week, the US president referred a question from a reporter on the plan to the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu responded that Israel was "close" to finding several countries willing to help implement the plan.