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Ammon News - Israel has informed several Arab states that it wants to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza's border to prevent future attacks as part of proposals for the enclave after war ends, Egyptian and regional sources said.

"Israel wants this buffer zone between Gaza and Israel from the north to the south to prevent any Hamas or other militants from infiltrating or attacking Israel," said a senior regional security official, one of the three regional sources who asked not to be identified by nationality.

Asked about plans for a buffer zone, Ophir Falk, foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Reuters: "The plan is more detailed than that. It's based on a three-tier process for the day after Hamas."

Outlining the Israeli government's position, he said the three tiers involved destroying Hamas, demilitarising Gaza and de-radicalising the enclave.

"A buffer zone may be part of the demilitarisation process," he said. He declined to offer details when asked whether those plans had been raised with international partners, including Arab states.

Arab states have dismissed as impossible Israel's goal of wiping out Hamas, saying it was more than simply a militant force that could be defeated.

A U.S. official, who declined to be identified, said Israel had "floated" the buffer zone idea without saying to whom. But the official also repeated Washington's opposition to any plan that reduced the size of Palestinian territory.

A senior Israeli security source said the buffer zone idea was "being examined", adding: "It is not clear at the moment how deep this will be and whether it could be 1 km or 2 km or hundreds of metres (inside Gaza)."

In Washington, an Israeli official said the Israeli defense establishment was talking about "some kind of security buffer on the Gaza side of the border so that Hamas cannot gather military capabilities close to the border and surprise Israel again."

"It is a security measure, not a political one," the official said on condition of anonymity. "We do not intend to remain on the Gaza side of the border."

No Arab states have shown any willingness to police or administer Gaza in future and most have roundly condemned Israel's offensive that has killed more than 15,000 people and levelled swathes of Gaza's urban areas.

Reuters