Cairo - Egypt's leading Muslim cleric Mohammed Tantawi said on Tuesday that preventing Muslims from doing their hajj pilgrimage is a "heinous crime," even as tensions brewed over moves by a Palestinian group that are making the Saudi Arabian pilgrimage difficult for many.

"Nobody should prevent a Muslim from doing his pilgrimage, and whoever does that commits a heinous crime," Tantawi was quoted by the state news agency MENA as saying.

Tantawi's statement comes after an Egyptian source said earlier on Tuesday that the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has prevented pilgrims from passing through the Rafah crossing, which connects the Palestinian Gaza Strip to Egypt. Palestinians not traveling by air would have to cross either Israel or Egypt to get to Saudi Arabia.

Egypt opened the crossing Saturday and said it planned to allow 3,000 Palestinians to head toward the Saudi kingdom.

But Hamas has blocked pilgrims whose Saudi visas are obtained through the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Fatah and Hamas have been in open rivalry since Hamas took over the enclave in June 2007.

Fawzi Barhoum, a senior Hamas official, has accused the Palestinian authority of "corruption" regarding dividing the share of pilgrimage visas to Palestinians this year.

"Ramallah (the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank) did not organize with Gaza how to divide Palestine's share. Thus what happened is that Gaza's share has been robbed," Barhoum has previously told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Cairo.

The hajj, is one of the five pillars of Islam, where each devout Muslim should fulfill it at least once in their life, if they can afford to do so. The pilgrimage to Mecca occurs from the 8th to 12th day of the last month of the Islamic calendar. (dpa)