The government on Thursday said it has not held any discussions with Israel regarding a possible replacement of Palestinian labourers with Indian workers.

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said this in a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

Congress MP K C Venugopal had asked the government whether it has held any discussions with Israel regarding a possible replacement of Palestinian labourers with Indian workers.

"The government has not made any discussions with Israel regarding possible replacement of Palestinian labourers with Indian workers," Muraleedharan said.

Following the Israel-Hamas conflict, there were media reports that said the Israeli construction industry is looking at recruiting one lakh Indian workers to replace 90,000 Palestinians.

To a separate question, Muraleedharan said the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Russia, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Singapore were the top 10 destinations for Indians going abroad for higher studies in the last five years.

"The number of Indian students abroad is estimated at 1.5 million (15 lakh)," he said.

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