‘We Met at the Hotel, He Was Gone by Morning’: Nitin Gadkari on the Assassination of Ismail Haniyeh

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has recounted a startling sequence of events that placed him close to one of the Middle East's most high-profile killings in recent years.

Speaking at a book launch, Gadkari said he met Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh just hours before the latter was assassinated in Tehran, an incident that has since raised serious questions over security lapses and the exact method of the attack.

Gadkari's Tehran visit and unexpected encounter

Gadkari said he had travelled to Iran on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to represent India at the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's newly elected President Masoud Pezeshkian. Ahead of the ceremony, senior leaders and officials from several countries had gathered informally at a five-star hotel in Tehran.

"All the heads of various nations were present, but one person who wasn't a head of state was Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. I met him. I saw him going to the swearing-in ceremony along with the President and the Chief Justice," Gadkari said while addressing the audience.

Shock in the early hours

According to Gadkari, the shock came a few hours after the ceremony. "After the swearing-in ceremony, I returned to my hotel, but around 4 am, the Iranian ambassador to India came to me and said we had to leave. I asked what happened and he told me that the Hamas chief had been assassinated. I was shocked and asked how it happened and he said, 'I don't know yet,'" the minister said.

Iranian authorities later confirmed that Haniyeh was killed at around 1:15 am on July 31 while staying in a highly secure military complex under the supervision of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His bodyguard was also killed in the attack.

Conflicting accounts of the assassination

Gadkari told the gathering that uncertainty still surrounds the exact circumstances of the killing. "Some people say he was killed because of using his mobile phone. Some say it happened in some other way," he said, underlining the lack of clarity even weeks after the incident.

The IRGC has stated that a short-range missile struck the building where Haniyeh was staying. The attack took place while he was in Tehran for President Pezeshkian's inauguration, adding to the sensitivity of the breach.

Mossad link and security lapse claims

Citing a report by The Telegraph, details later emerged suggesting that Israel's intelligence agency Mossad recruited Iranian security personnel to plant explosives inside the building. The report claimed an earlier plan to assassinate Haniyeh during his May visit to Tehran for the funeral of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was called off due to large crowds.

The explosives were reportedly detonated remotely at around 2 am, after operatives exited Iran, leaving at least one agent behind. Senior IRGC officials have since acknowledged the scale of the security failure, with one official telling The Telegraph that agents from the Ansar-al-Mahdi protection unit may have been exploited.

Speaking more broadly at the event, Gadkari remarked that strong nations are difficult to target, pointing to Israel as an example of how technological advancement and military strength can translate into global influence.