A Muslim extremist group on Friday threatened to behead female TV broadcasters if they don't don strict Islamic dress, leaving the women terrified and marking a further downward spiral in Gaza's anarchy.

The threat to cut throats from vein to vein was delivered by the Swords of Truth, a fanatical group that has previously claimed responsibility for bombing Internet cafes and music shops. The new threat was the first time the organization targeted a specific group of people, and adds to a growing climate of extremism, fear and suspicion in Gaza.

In many parts of the Muslim world, religious conservative policies keep women out of TV anchoring positions or only let them take the jobs if they wear headscarves. But in some countries scarves are uncommon, like Lebanon and Jordan, and Egypt even keeps newscasters who wear them off its TV stations.

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Most of the 15 women broadcasters on government-run Palestine TV wear headscarves. But they also wear makeup and Western clothing, which is not considered strictly observant by the extremists.

The Swords of Truth issued the statement Friday in an e-mail sent to news organizations.

"We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation." The group accused the women broadcasters of being without any ... shame or morals.

The group said it knew where to find the women. Prior to the statement, some women broadcasters said they received personal threats through their mobile phones. It was not clear if those threats were from the same group.

One anchorwoman who does not wear a headscarf said she was too frightened by the threat to go to work on Saturday.

"It's a dangerous precedent in our society. It will target all working women," said the broadcaster, who declined to give her name out of fear. The statement frightened us.

Another presenter who wears a headscarf, on Palestine TV, said she couldn't understand why they were targeted.

"I hope they take it back. I hope not a bullet will be fired at us," she said.

Basem Abu Sumaya, head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, which runs Palestine TV, said that the PBC already had security measures in place, but could not protect people on the way to work.

The PBC is bankrolled by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, and is accused of openly exhibiting support for the movement, which is a bitter rival of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

A senior security official, who requested anonymity owing to the issue's sensitivity, said The Swords of Truth had less than 100 members, and was formed last year.

The group claimed responsibility for the bombings since October of about three dozen Internet cafes, music shops and pool halls, which are considered places of vice by some in deeply conservative Gaza. Assailants detonated small bombs outside businesses at night, causing damage but no injuries.

The security official said his forces were taking the threat seriously. He said Hamas members funded the group, wanting to impose a hardline version of Islam in Gaza. Hamas won parliamentary elections last year and has a unity government with Fatah.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Ridwan said his faction had no relation to the group.

Other hardline groups have grown in Gaza, plagued by the rise of Islamic extremism, alongside Hamas-Fatah fighting, anarchy and grueling poverty.

The Army of Islam claimed responsibility for kidnapping British Broadcasting Corp. reporter Alan Johnston in March.

Muslim hardliners lobbed a bomb at a UN-run school in May, accusing the world body of turning schools into nightclubs for holding a display of traditional Palestinian dancing.

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