This is the story of Bipin Joshi.
NEPALESE STUDENT STILL IN CAPTIVITY
(ILTV)
Bipin Joshi took a leap of faith and left his home country of Nepal for the first time on September 12, 2023. He and 16 other students were selected to study agriculture and work in the fields of Kibbutz Alumim, near the Gaza border. The program was designed to provide them with valuable knowledge for their future careers.
“He went to Israel just for his studies—to learn from Israel and apply that knowledge to agriculture in Nepal,” said his best friend, Bhumika Bista.
His parents were hesitant about their only son traveling 3,500 miles away for the program, Bista explained. However, Joshi ultimately boarded the plane and embarked on his 11-month educational journey in Israel.
“He knows how to lead,” said his friend Himanchal Kattel, who traveled from Nepal with Joshi and was also part of the program. “He’s also very spiritual. He meditated every day.”
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Bipin Joshi arrived in Israel 25 days before October 7th.
(Bipin Joshi Facebook with permission)
Now 24 years old, Joshi is described as composed and a natural-born leader. However, coming from another part of the world, he found it difficult to understand the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the role of Hamas, the terrorist organization that governs Gaza. Kattel said he and the other students were aware that living near the Gaza border came with risks and that there were tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, but they did not fully grasp the extent of the threat.
“We were told that if there were sirens, we would need to go to a bomb shelter—that was it,” Kattel recalled. “We never imagined something this bad could happen to us.”
On the morning of October 7, 2023, sirens blared across the communities closest to the Gaza Strip. Residents of Kibbutz Alumim, located just five kilometers from the border, were instructed to take shelter. Joshi and the other Nepalese students followed protocol and hid in a bomb shelter.
After about an hour and a half, the situation escalated. The students began hearing shouting outside.
“At the time, we didn’t know the difference between Hebrew and Arabic—it all sounded the same to us,” said Kattel. At that moment, they still did not fully understand what was happening, but then they heard gunfire.
“Two of our friends stepped outside to see who was shooting. They were both shot immediately. Then, two grenades were thrown inside,” he said.
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The 24-year-old lived on Kibbutz Alumim with other students from Nepal and Thai workers.
(Bipin Joshi Facebook with Permission)
Hamas terrorists hurled two live grenades into the bomb shelter where Joshi, the other students, and several Thai workers were taking cover. One grenade exploded, injuring five students. In a split-second act of bravery, Joshi grabbed the second grenade and threw it out of the shelter before it could detonate.
“If both grenades had exploded, I don’t think I would be alive today,” said Kattel.
The terrorists then forced the students into another room with other people from the kibbutz and opened fire. Soon after, they grabbed Joshi and took him away. He was never seen again.
Kattel only learned that Joshi had been kidnapped by Hamas days later, while recovering in the hospital from three gunshot wounds sustained in the attack.
“We saw a video from the hospital. Physically, he didn’t seem too hurt,” he said.
Footage released by the IDF, later confirmed by Joshi’s friends and family, appears to show him being dragged into Gaza’s Shifa Hospital on the morning of October 7. Though the video does not clearly show his face, his loved ones identified him, taking it as proof that he had been kidnapped alive.
“That morning, he spoke to his cousin and said he was at risk. He told him to take care of his family if anything happened to him,” Bista said. “It’s too painful for us to believe… but that was his last message to his cousin.”
Joshi’s final words have haunted his family, who remain in a remote village in western Nepal. Due to language barriers and a lack of understanding about the conflict, they only learned he had been kidnapped two days later.
“We received a list of students—those who had been killed that day. We were also told that he was missing… That was the worst news we could have received,” Bista said.
That morning, Hamas terrorists murdered ten Nepalese students, injuring several others. Kattel, who still receives medical treatment for his gunshot wounds, decided to stay in Israel and pursue a master’s degree. But as life continues outside of Hamas’s tunnels, Joshi’s friends and family are left wondering why he has not been released.
“A lot of thoughts run through your mind. Sometimes you’re hopeful, sometimes you’re hopeless. There’s a constant conflict between your emotions,” said Kattel. “It’s been 16 or 17 months. I think you can imagine how his family feels.”
Bista describes Joshi as an innocent person caught in the middle of a conflict he had nothing to do with—a foreign student who came to Israel to build a better future for his home country. Today, Joshi has been held captive by Hamas for 522 days. His condition remains unknown, as there have been no signs of life from him since the release of other hostages. However, Israel believes he is among the 24 men still presumed alive in Gaza.
“He must return to all of us as soon as possible. He must not lose hope… His family is waiting for him. All of Nepal is waiting for him,” said Bista. “We know he will come back to us.”