Gaza's Hamas terrorist rulers on Saturday denied an allegation by Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak that the group infiltrated hundreds of men across the border during the 2011 uprising, AFP reports.
Mubarak earlier this week took to the witness stand in a Cairo court in the trial of his successor, Mohammed Morsi, which centers on jailbreaks allegedly orchestrated by Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mubarak claimed in his testimony he had received information at the time from his intelligence chief on infiltration by terrorists from Gaza to the country's east during the uprising.
"General Omar Suleiman informed me on January 29 (2011) that 800 armed militants infiltrated through the border," he said, adding that Hamas members, assisted by North Sinai residents, used underground tunnels to cross.
Hamas said in a statement on Saturday that it "strongly denies the claims made by Egypt's ousted president Mohammed Hosni Mubarak during his testimony in court".
"Mubarak claimed that Hamas sent 800 members to Cairo in order to release Palestinian, Egyptian, and Arab prisoners from the Egyptian jails," it said, according to AFP.
"While Hamas deplores some parties' insistence to embroil the Palestinian movement into Egypt's internal affairs, it reiterates its commitment to its policy of not intervening in the internal affairs of other countries," added the group.
Morsi was eventually elected as president to replace Mubarak, before being ousted himself in 2013 amid mass protests against his rule.
In 2016, Egypt's highest court overturned the death penalty to which Morsi and five other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced for their roles in organizing the mass prison break at the Wadi Natroun prison in 2011.
Morsi has already been sentenced to a total of 45 years in prison in various trials. Last December, he was sentenced to three years in prison for "insulting the judiciary".
Last September, a court in Egypt upheld a life sentence against Morsi on charges stemming from a trial over spying for Qatar.
In 2012, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of inciting the killing of protesters, in an incident that saw 10 people gunned down outside the presidential palace in December 2012.
Mubarak himself was imprisoned for a lengthy period of time following his ouster. However, he was acquitted in March of 2017 of charges of killing protesters during the 2011 revolution and subsequently set free.