Hamas expressed dismay at statements made on Sunday by Egyptian interior minister Magdy Abdel-Ghafar in which he accused the de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip of being involved in the assassination of Egypt's top prosecutor in June 2015.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri described the statements as "untrue," and was quoted by the group's website as saying that Abdel-Ghafar’s claims are not in line with "the efforts exerted to develop relations between Hamas and Cairo."

He also called on Egyptian officials "not to involve Palestinian factions in internal domestic disagreements."

Abdel-Ghafar said that Turkish-based leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi hails, masterminded the assassination of prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat, while Hamas "provided training for militants to execute it and also took part in planning it."

Egyptian officials have more than once linked Hamas to terror acts in Egypt, which spiked following the toppling of Morsi in 2013.