Hamas denied responsibility Monday evening for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli settlers, threatening to “open the gates of hell” against Israel if it launched an attack against the Gaza Strip.

Hamas denied responsibility Monday evening for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli settlers, threatening to “open the gates of hell” against Israel if it launched an attack against the Gaza Strip.

“The story of the disappearance and killing of the three settlers is based on the Israeli narrative only,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP. “The Israeli occupation is trying to refer to this narrative in order to justify its wide-scale war against our people, against the resistance and against Hamas.”

“If Netanyahu launches a war against Gaza, the gates of hell will open on him,” Abu Zuhri added on his Facebook page.

Meanwhile, PA President Mahmoud Abbas convened an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership Monday evening to discuss “the political developments and the repercussions of the recent events,” the official Wafa news agency reported.

Earlier, Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay." "In great agony, we found three dead bodies  this evening, and all signs are that these are the dead bodies of our three kidnapped youths – Eyal, Gilad and Naftali. "They were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by beasts," Netanyahu said in a statement.

President Shimon Peres said Israel's retribution would be harsh. "The whole nation blows its head this evening with a grief too heavy to bear," Peres said in a statement.