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CAIRO - Afrasianet - An Egyptian court on Saturday declared Hamas a "terrorist" organisation, a judicial source said, weeks after the Palestinian Islamist movement's armed wing was given the same designation.

Since the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted in 2013, the authorities have accused Hamas of aiding jihadists who have waged a string of deadly attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood which the authorities have also declared a terrorist group.

"The court ruled that Hamas should be included as a terrorist organisation," Samir Sabry, one of the lawyers who brought the case against Hamas, said.

While the January decision against Hamas targeted only the armed wing, Saturday's broader ruling could have greater consequences for the already strained relations between Cairo and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip along Egypt's border.

A source close to Hamas' armed wing signaled the group would no longer accept Egypt as a broker between it and Israel after the January decision against Hamas' Qassam Brigades armed wing.

Cairo has for many years played a central role in engineering ceasefires between Israel and Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, including a truce reached between the sides in August that ended a 50-day Gaza war.