GAZA’S ceasefire hangs by a thread as Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today of “intentionally sabotaging” the deal.

The group said it would not participate in more talks on extending the truce until Israel releases 620 Palestinians it was due to free on Saturday.

Israel escalated its aggression in the occupied West Bank as well, where it deployed tanks on Sunday for the first time in 20 years.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and that tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled or been ordered to leave will not be allowed back.

Israel also said that it intends to limit Syrian movement in the latter’s own territory south of Damascus.

Mr Katz said that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism” in all refugee camps in the West Bank.

“We will not allow the return of residents and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow,” he said.

Tanks were last deployed in the West Bank in 2002 when Israel fought a Palestinian uprising.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank” and urged the international community to intervene.

“Even if they stay, we will return to the camp at the end,” said Mohamed al-Sadi, one of those displaced from Jenin. “This camp is ours. We have no other place to go.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel will not allow Syria’s new army or the jihadist group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that ousted former President Bashar Assad to “enter the area south of Damascus,” the Syrian capital.

Mr Netanyahu and Mr Katz made it clear that Israeli forces would stay in parts of southern Syria for an indefinite period.

Mr Netanyahu said: “Take note: We will not allow HTS forces or the new Syrian army to enter the area south of Damascus.

“We demand the complete demilitarisation of southern Syria in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda from the forces of the new regime.”

There was no immediate response from Syrian authorities who were set to begin a national dialogue conference today.

After the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel seized the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory. The zone was set up under a 1974 ceasefire agreement.