His family clung to the hope he had survived Hamas captivity. Then came a crushing blow
Kathmandu, Nepal: When a ceasefire was reached, the family thanked God. In short, there was hope that Bipin Joshi might finally return home.
On Monday evening, after being held for two years by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he returned with a coffin delivered to his home in the lush foothills of western Nepal.
Relatives of Bipin Joshi gathered as his body was taken to Kanchanpur, Nepal, on Tuesday.Credit: AFP
While millions of people lit candles at home to celebrate Tihar, Nepal’s festival of lights, few did so in his hometown of Mahendranagar. Dozens of people gathered to await his body. When he arrived, his family burst into tears, still in disbelief at the idea that he was caught in someone else’s war thousands of miles away.
Joshi was 23 years old when he left Nepal for Israel as part of an agricultural research program. He was captured by Hamas at a kibbutz in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, less than three weeks into his stay there, according to Israeli officials.
Bipin Joshi’s family believed that he was still alive despite there being almost no information about his condition. Credit: access point
His family heard next to nothing about his situation following his abduction, but they never stopped waging a desperate campaign to remind the world of his existence and bring him home. They traveled to Israel and the United States to find someone who could help.
“Tihar is the festival of lights, but it will always be a reminder to us of darkness,” said his cousin Kishor Joshi. “After two years of sleepless nights and fighting for his release, all we have today is his lifeless body.”
The news of his death devastated the family, who believed that he was alive until the last moment. In interviews with New York Times Just hours after Hamas agreed to release all hostages this month, and later when Israel accepted the offer, her 18-year-old sister Pushpa Joshi said she was sure she would see her brother’s “smiling face” again.
The Israeli government had expressed concern for his life; When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations and read out a list of the names of the remaining hostages believed to be alive, Joshi was not among them. In statements after his body was returned by Hamas, the Israeli military said it believed he was killed in captivity early in the war and that this could not be independently verified.
