Nepalese Student Held Hostage by Hamas Confirmed Dead Nearly Two Years After October 7 Attack

Tel Aviv / Kathmandu: For nearly two years, faint hope sustained the family of Bipin Joshi, a 23-year-old Nepalese agriculture student who was taken hostage during the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7, 2023. That hope ended this week when Hamas announced it had no remaining living hostages, and Israeli authorities confirmed that Joshi — long believed to be alive — was among the dead.

Joshi’s journey to Israel had begun with promise. A native of western Nepal, he arrived in Israel in mid-September 2023 as part of an agricultural training program at Kibbutz Alumim, located near the Gaza border. Along with 16 other Nepalese students, he sought to learn advanced farming techniques and gain practical experience — unaware of how perilously close the kibbutz stood to one of the world’s most volatile frontiers.

That dream turned to terror on the morning of October 7, when Hamas gunmen stormed Kibbutz Alumim in one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s history. Ten Nepalese students were killed in the assault. Photographs later showed the group, including Joshi, sheltering alongside Thai workers moments before the attackers broke in.

According to survivor Himanchal Kattel, Joshi displayed extraordinary courage. “The militants threw a grenade inside, but Bipin caught it and hurled it away before it exploded,” Kattel recalled — an act that likely saved his life.

Joshi, wounded in the attack, was captured and taken into Gaza along with two Thai nationals. Surveillance footage from the kibbutz showed him being led away by armed militants — the last known sighting of him alive. At the site where he was taken, residents of Alumim later planted a Nepalese flag in his memory.

Back home in Nepal, his family refused to give up hope. His 17-year-old sister Pushpa Joshi routinely undertook an eight-hour journey to Kathmandu to meet officials and appeal for diplomatic help. In August, the family travelled to Israel, meeting President Isaac Herzog and joining vigils at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, where they held Bipin’s photograph alongside portraits of Israeli captives.

Their hopes briefly flickered back to life when a video surfaced in November 2023, showing Joshi alive in captivity. But after that, no further evidence emerged.

On Monday, as Hamas released 20 hostages under a new ceasefire deal intended to free all surviving captives, Israeli officials confirmed Joshi’s death and said his remains had been recovered. Before that confirmation, he had been the only non-Israeli hostage believed to be alive in Gaza.

In his home village, a small shrine now bears his photograph beside the flag of Nepal — a quiet symbol of bravery, sacrifice, and a promise unfulfilled.

The conflict that began with the October 7 Hamas assault — which killed around 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 others kidnapped — has since exacted a devastating toll. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, the Associated Press reported.