Hamas denies Mubarak claim that it sent fighters to Egypt in 2011

Hamas, the de facto ruling party of the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip, denied on Saturday an allegation by Egypt's deposed president Hosni Mubarak that it had infiltrated hundreds of men across the border into Egypt during the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak took to the witness stand in a Cairo court on Wednesday to testify about jailbreaks allegedly orchestrated by his successor Mohammed Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The former president said he had received information at the time from his intelligence chief on infiltration by fighters from the Gaza Strip to the country's east during the uprising.

"General Omar Suleiman informed me on 29 January [2011] that 800 armed militants infiltrated through the border," he said, claiming that fighters from Hamas, assisted by North Sinai residents, used underground tunnels to cross.

In a statement, Hamas said 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.

"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."

Mubarak was ousted in 2011 after three decades in power.

In March 2017, he was acquitted of charges of killing protesters, but he remains under investigation for alleged corruption.

Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, governed Egypt for just a year before then-army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew him in a coup in July 2013.