CAIRO, Jan 17 (Aswat Masriya) – A Cairo court of urgent matters postponed on Saturday its verdict on banning the Palestinian al-Qassam Brigades and listing it as a terrorist organisation to January 31.

Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Gaza-ruling Hamas movement, is accused of complicity in several militant attacks on Egyptian lands, including an attack on a Sinai security checkpoint on October 24, 2014 which left at least 30 security personnel killed.

The court was scheduled to rule on banning the Qassam Brigades on Saturday, yet it postponed its verdict.

An Egyptian court banned the activities of Hamas last March and ordered the closure of all its offices in the country.

Egyptian authorities have been accusing Hamas, a strong ally of ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's regime, of supporting militant attacks which target security forces.

Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of Mursi in July 2013, which followed mass protests against his rule. 

At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on October 24, 2014. The attack is the worst since Mursi's ouster. 

Hamas members are being tried alongside Mursi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders accused of escaping from the Wadi al-Natroun Prison during the January 25 uprising which toppled former President Hosni Mubarak's regime in 2011.