Israel’s defence minister Katz has said his country is seeking President Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a potential war crime.

Trump discussed a US takeover of the Gaza Strip in early 2025 that would have involved removing Palestinians from the territory, but has since pulled back from the idea. A 20-point peace plan the White House drew up last year did not call for Palestinians’ deportation, an act that would be widely seen as ethnic cleansing.

Katz, however, said on Wednesday that he believed US support could tip regional opinion in favour of the forced resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza, and believed that Trump’s approval was crucial to convince neighbouring countries to accept Palestinian refugees.

The remarks come during a competitive election season in Israel in which the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his rightwing allies have appealed to voters by calling for more aggressive measures against Palestinians. This has attracted backlash from different countries already.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian for comment on the subject.

Han Hak-ja, leader of the Unification Church, has been sentenced to two years in prison for bribing South Korea’s former first lady and other political funding offences.

A court found that Han Hak-ja’s church gave Kim Keon Hee, the wife of ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, two Chanel bags and a diamond necklace, together worth 80 million won ($57,900; £42,500). A special counsel team appointed to the case said Kim received the luxury products from the church between April and July 2022, in exchange for business and political favours.

A special counsel team appointed to the case said Kim received the luxury products from the church between April and July 2022, in exchange for business and political favours. The prosecutors said the probe was the first time the authorities have confirmed the church’s attempt at buying influence in politics, and released photos of $19m (£14m) worth of cash found in Han’s personal safe.

Earlier this year, Kim was sentenced to 20 months in jail for accepting bribes from the church. Han, the 83-year-old widow of the Unification Church’s founder Sun Myung Moon, had repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them “false”.

The Unification Church, known formally as The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, was founded in South Korea in the 1950s by Sun Myung Moon, who proclaimed himself the messiah. It is probably best known for the mass weddings where thousands of couples were married by Han and her late husband and founder Sun Myung Moon in a stadium. Critics have described the group as “cult-like”, and lawyers have accused it of coercing devotees, known colloquially as “Moonies” after its founder, to donate large sums of money.

A Tibetan advocacy group says hundreds of homes were destroyed on the Tibetan side of the border in last week’s deadly floods, raising questions about Beijing’s official account of the scale of the disaster.

Chinese authorities say 16 people have been confirmed dead and 546 are missing, including 261 foreign citizens. But the International Campaign for Tibet says its sources believe the number of casualties is significantly higher, with at least 300 homes destroyed.

Public discussion about the flash floods has been restricted, with security officials in Tibet announcing on Sunday that it had penalised at least 10 people for sharing “false disaster information”. There was no further information on the nature of the penalties.

Advocacy groups say there has been a stark contrast in the amount of information presented on either side of the border. Chinese coverage has been dominated by official state media reports, with few unofficial accounts about the scale of the disaster and its aftermath.

Many people in China also question the legitimacy of China’s data, such as why all the updates were coming from the Nepali side of the border, and dispute that the death toll is higher than what the Chinese government claims to be.