A Palestinian official on Saturday said foreign combatants have entered the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

"We confirmed information that non-Palestinian extremist elements have arrived in Gaza and begun to thrive," said Mahmoud al-Habbash, Religious Affairs Minister of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

He accused Islamic Hamas movement, which has been ruling Gaza for the past two years, of "opening the door to those extremists, thanks to the absence of the legitimate PNA." Al-Habbash was referring to Hamas violent takeover of the coastal Strip in deadly fighting in 2007.

Al-Habbash's remarks were made a day after Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya denied reports that fighters affiliated or inspired by al-Qaida terrorist organization have been operating in the impoverished enclave that borders Egypt at one side and encircled by Israel in the north and east.

"Hamas coup has planted extremism," al-Habbash said, rejecting Hamas' claims that the PNA has encouraged and aided some individuals to form the so-called Salafi groups to shake security in Gaza.

But on Saturday, Hamas authorities announced they have completed a security crackdown against radical Muslim militants in southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah after the group's leader accused Hamas of being so liberal and announced the birth of an Islamic state from Rafah.

Some 22 people were killed in the fight which started after Friday prayers, including the leader, Sheikh Abdul Latif Mussa, who had said that the rule of Islamic law would prevail in Rafah and soon in all over Gaza.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2009)