- By Ajeet Kumar
- Thu, 09 Oct 2025 03:27 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
US President Donald Trump has announced that both Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of the 20-point peace plan. According to the US President, all hostages would be released by Monday, October 13.
This raised hope among a Hindu family whose son was abducted by Hamas on October 2, 2023. The family of a Nepali man, Bipin Joshi, taken captive by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, appealed to his captors for his release, stressing that he has no involvement in the conflict in Gaza.
Who is Bipin Joshi?
Notably, Joshi, now 25, was among 17 Nepali students studying agriculture in southern Israel during the Hamas attack that ignited the war in Gaza. Joshi had worked hard in a government competition to earn a spot to study in Israel, his 17-year-old sister Pushpa Joshi told news agency the Associated Press in Kathmandu. He arrived in southern Israel just three weeks before the attack. It was his first time out of Nepal.
“Bipin Joshi is an innocent agriculture student,” Pushpa Joshi said. “He is a student who has a long life ahead of him, who is just 25 years now.”
How did Bipin Joshi save multiple lives?
Militants killed 10 of the Nepali students in the attack and injured six. Joshi saved multiple lives by tossing a live grenade out of the bomb shelter where they were hiding, his sister said, before he was abducted and taken to Gaza.
His family hasn’t had a sign of life from him since Israel obtained security footage from a hospital in Gaza showing Joshi, so they know Joshi was taken alive to Gaza, but have no information about him since then.
A hope: Family releases video
On Wednesday, Joshi’s family released a video, which was recovered by the Israel Defense Forces and shared with the family, and is thought to have been filmed in November 2023, according to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of most of the remaining 48 hostages. According to a report by the Times of Israel, the family released the video in order to pressure the negotiators to secure his release.
Pushpa, who was 15 when her brother was kidnapped, lives with their parents in a town in western Nepal. She travels eight hours each way on buses to Kathmandu regularly to lobby officials to secure her brother’s release. She had met the country’s prime minister and president several times. However, as KP Sharma Oli’s government collapsed last month, there is no one to fill the shoes.
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Pushpa Joshi, whose brother Bipin is held hostage in Gaza, speaks in Hostages Square, August 16, 2025. (Uriel Even Sapir / Hostages Families Forum)
Earlier, the Oli government stated it repeatedly sought help from Qatari and Egyptian officials to get Joshi freed.
“He is alive and we believe from the bottom of our hearts that he for sure is going to come back all safe and sound,” Pushpa said. “We have big hopes that he will be back.”
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Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack. They are still holding 53 hostages, around 20 them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages from Gaza and recovered dozens of bodies, including five over the past week.
No mention of Bipin Joshi in Netanyahu's announcement at UN
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed “doubts” about whether several hostages are still alive. None of the previously released hostages have seen Bipin Joshi recently during their captivity. Recently, during an address at the United Nations, Netanyahu read out the names of the hostages but did not mention Joshi’s name.
His parents are constantly monitoring news about the Gaza conflict, and get their hopes up whenever they see signs of a hostage release. “News is always on, all day from morning to night, at our house,” Pushpa Joshi said.
They are also in contact with families of other Nepalis who were killed or injured in the attack, though Joshi is the only Nepali hostage.
Brother is my best friend: Sister Pushpa
Pushpa said her brother is her best friend, and that they would often learn, sing and dance together while their parents were at work.“In rainy season like now, we used to get wet in the rain and dance,” she said.
He studied diligently to earn the scholarship to study agriculture in Israel, she said. The exchange program at Kibbutz Alumim was close to the Gaza border in a major agricultural area.
Nepalese go to Israel for both education and employment, to learn the country’s advanced agricultural techniques. Agriculture is the backbone of Nepal’s economy, and the primary source of income for more than 60 per cent of the population.
(With inputs from agency)