A Palestinian National Authority official said Saturday that a joint committee chaired by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had been formed to manage humanitarian affairs in the Gaza Strip, which is denied by Hamas which rules the enclave.

Jawad al-Najji, the minister of national economy, told Xinhua that the committee includes ministers in the Palestinian government and businessmen from the Gaza Strip.

"The committee was formed two months ago to follow up the affairs of the Gaza Strip populations and aims at easing and facilitating the commercial, economical and humanitarian day-by- day of the residents," said al-Najji.

The Islamic Hamas movement which took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 denied on Saturday that it accepted an independent committee formed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to manage Gaza affairs.

Ihab al-Ghussein, the spokesman of the Hamas-run government, said on his official Facebook page that the report on forming the committee and accepting it by the government in Gaza "are baseless. "

Earlier on Saturday, Ma'moon Abu Shahla, secretary general of the coordination council of Gaza private sector, told reporters that Abbas issued a decision to form a committee to manage Gaza Strip's affairs.

Abu Shahla said "the role of the committee is to manage the humanitarian and economical affairs in the Gaza Strip, adding that Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, "expressed satisfaction over the formation of the committee."

The Gaza Strip has been under a tight Israeli blockade since Hamas violently seized control of the territory and ousted security forces loyal to Abbas in 2007.

In addition to the Israeli blockade, Egypt closed the borders with the Gaza Strip and destroyed hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the borders after the ouster of Islamic President Mohamed Morsi in July last year.