GAZA CITY, Palestine

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas on Saturday denied recent claims by an Israeli army official that members of the Daesh terrorist group had recently entered the Hamas-run Gaza Strip from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

"These allegations are promoted by the Israeli occupation; they are mere fabrications that have no basis in fact," leading Hamas member Ismail Radwan told Anadolu Agency.

The claims, he added, "seek to justify Israel’s decade-long blockade of the Gaza Strip".

On Friday, Israeli army Major-General Yoav Mordechai alleged that Daesh members had entered the Hamas-run coastal enclave to undergo military training via cross-border tunnels from Egypt’s Sinai.

In April, Hamas announced that it was stepping up security along the Gaza Strip’s borders with Egypt.

The announcement came after a Hamas delegation visited Cairo in March to meet with Egyptian officials.

The visit was the first of its kind since Hamas-Egypt relations nosedived in the wake of a 2013 military coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader.