Israel's defense minister on Sunday said the army had "evacuated" three refugee camps in the north of the occupied West Bank and had been ordered to remain there for the coming year "to prevent the return of residents".

Israel's army on Sunday announced the expansion of operations in the occupied West Bank including the deployment of a tank division in the city of Jenin, the first time tanks have operated in the Palestinian territory since the end of the second intifada, or uprising, in 2005.

Hamas on Sunday said Israel has gravely endangered a five-week-old Gaza truce by delaying the release of Palestinian prisoners under the deal because of the manner it has freed Israeli hostages.

Hamas freed the first two of six Israeli hostages due to be released Saturday even as heightened tension between the adversaries clouded the future of the fragile ceasefire deal.

The two hostages — Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39 — were put into Red Cross ambulances after being brought out onto a stage by masked and armed Hamas fighters in front of a crowd in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Soon after, the Israeli military confirmed that the two had been brought into Israel.

Hamas rejected on Friday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "threats" to make the Palestinian Islamist group pay after he accused it of violating the ceasefire by not returning the hostage Shiri Bibas.

"We reject the threats issued by Benjamin Netanyahu as part of his attempts to improve his image," Hamas said in a statement and called on Israeli authorities to return the body of a Gazan woman that the group had handed over on Thursday, claiming it was that of Bibas.

Israel will free 602 inmates from jails on Saturday as part of a hostage-prisoner swap with Hamas under an ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group.

An official with the committee preparing a national dialogue conference in Syria to help chart the country's future said Friday that it has not been decided whether the conference will take place before or after a new government is formed.

The date of the conference has not been set and the timing "is up for discussion by the citizens," Hassan al-Daghim, spokesperson for the committee, told The Associated Press in an interview in Damascus Friday.

Hamas's armed wing confirmed it will hand over Saturday six hostages held alive in the Gaza Strip as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal with Israel.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement on Friday that the release would occur as planned. Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum published the names of the six hostages earlier this week, naming them as Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered an "intensive operation against centers of terrorism" in the occupied West Bank, his office said, after three buses exploded in central Israel without causing any reported injuries.

Arab leaders were gathering in Saudi Arabia on Friday to hammer out a recovery plan for Gaza aimed at countering President Donald Trump's proposal for U.S. control of the territory and the expulsion of its people.