Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh shared stage with Nitin Gadkari hours before he was killed in Iran

Indian Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had shared the stage with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday, which is less than 24 hours before the latter was killed by a pre-dawn airstrike in Iran. Gadkari and Haniyeh, along with leaders from other countries, were taking part in the inauguration ceremony of Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran.

Senior officials from several countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Armenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Cuba and Brazil were also present at the ceremony. According to news agency AFP, European Union envoy Enrique Mora was also attending it.

The Hamas chief was present at the ceremony along with other regional Iran-backed allies, namely the head of the Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhalah, Lebanon's Hezbollah deputy secretary general Naim Qassem and the spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam of Yemen's Huthi rebels.

Iran vows to defend 'territorial integrity'

Hamas and Iran, who claim that it was an Israeli strike that killed Ismail Haniyeh, has vowed that the act "will not go unanswered".

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei too threatened "harsh punishment" for Haniyeh's killing.

"We consider it our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.

Even Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian has promised the Zionists “consequences” in a statement later Wednesday.

"The Zionists will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act," he said

"Such measures are a sign that the policies of the Zionist regime have reached a dead end," he added.

Israel declined to comment on the Tehran strike, which came after it struck a Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut on Tuesday, targeting a senior commander of the Lebanese militant group it blamed for a deadly weekend rocket strike on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Notably, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attacks on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

(With AFP inputs)