Nepal’s Bipin Joshi was 23 when he was taken captive by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 Operation Al Aqsa flood.

As the first phase of Hamas-Israel ceasefire ended, a quiet yet powerful hope pulses through Nepal. With every passing moment, the nation holds its breath, praying for the return of one of its own—Bipin Joshi. 

“For these 17 months, we’ve neither had hunger nor been able to sleep,” Bipin’s father, Mahananda Joshi, said in a video interview last month.

“We have spent all these days and nights just looking for our son.”

The Gaza ceasefire, brokered by Qatar, the U.S., and Egypt in January, between Hamas and Israel, led to the release of 33 Israeli captives and five Thai workers.

The first phase of the truce wrapped up on March 1, with Hamas handing over the bodies of four captives in the last exchange with Israel.

While Israel’s streets echo with the “Bring Them Home” campaign, Nepal has quietly continued its efforts to secure the release of Bipin Joshi, taken from the Alumim Kibbutz (settlement) on October 7, 2023.

At 23, Bipin Joshi left Nepal in September 2023 to take part in Israel’s “learn and earn” program, an opportunity for agriculture students. It was supposed to be an 11-month internship on an Israeli farm.

This program, a part of the 65-year diplomatic ties between Israel and Nepal, was designed for students like Joshi with hands-on agricultural skills. 

“While leaving for Israel, he had promised to return to fulfill his dream of creating opportunities in agriculture for others, once he was done with his studies,” Joshi’s mother, Padma, told broadcaster Prime Times HD in April 2024.

During their time in Israel, Nepali students like Joshi balanced studies with practical work at the Sedot Negev Agricultural Training Center.  

Joshi, a student of Far-Western University’s School of Agriculture, was among 49 students in the 2023 batch of the program, where the students had to pay just the airfare, and lived and worked on the farm five days a week.

Joshi’s cohort was the first one to set off for Israel from their campus, according to Rohit Nayak, Joshi’s colleague and program batch-mate.

The students, Joshi included, were told “rockets would sometimes be fired to Gaza” before departing for the program and were not made aware of the broader geopolitical context and history, Nayak told Doha News.

Joshi was stationed at Alumim, a small distance from the Gaza Strip, when the October 7 attack took place in Re’im.

In the chaos, 10 Nepali students lost their lives and six more were injured. Joshi was taken captive after a bomb was thrown into the bunker where he and other foreign nationals, including Thai workers, had taken shelter, Nayak added.

“He and I were stationed in different groups [when the attack took place],” said Nayak, who was evacuated from Israel on October 13. “He was taken at around 10pm to 12am on October 7, according to those who were there.”

CCTV footage from the Sedot Negev Agricultural Training Center showed Joshi’s last known moments at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

As days stretch into months, Joshi’s family, alongside Nepali officials and citizens, continue to hold onto the hope that the now 24-year-old is still alive. His mother’s last phone call with him was on October 6, just one day before his capture—a fleeting moment of connection that now feels like an eternity.

Qatar, Joshi, and Gaza mediation 

Qatar has played a significant role as a mediator in efforts to broker a deal between Hamas and Israel, especially after the onset of Israel’s military operations in Gaza in October 2023. The conflict has led to the loss of over 61,709 Palestinian lives in the past 16 months.

On January 19, after a year of stalled negotiations, Qatar announced the beginning of a truce, which involved a three-phase ceasefire and a captives-prisoner agreement.

The first phase of the truce includes the release of 33 captives by Hamas in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees. Each phase is set to last 42 days.

When Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visited Nepal in April 2024, becoming the first Arab leader to do so, President Ramchandra Paudel requested for Sheikh Tamim’s support and intervention in securing Joshi’s safe release.

Prior to the trip, Nepal’s ambassador to Qatar Naresh Bikram Dhakal also expressed high hopes of the impact of the Amir’s visit on Joshi’s freedom, appealing to the Amir himself during a call. 

“We had previously submitted a written request for the release of Bipin, emphasising his distinct identity, through the Foreign Ministry,” Dhakal told the Rising Nepal Daily.

Joshi’s family had delivered a letter to Nepal’s president and then-prime minister to raise the agenda with Qatar’s leader, which Nepali officials honoured. 

In response, Sheikh Tamim assured that he would do his best to secure the student’s return to Nepal, according to foreign relations adviser to the president, Suresh Chalise.

“Joshi’s safe release is one of our prime concerns, and the President asked for the Amir’s support in securing it,” press adviser to Nepal’s president, Kiran Pokhrel, told the Kathmandu Post.

On February 16, Nepali Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba met with Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad bin Sultan Al Muraikhi in Oman, renewing requests for Qatar’s assistance in securing the return of Bipin Joshi to Nepal.

“We discussed efforts to secure the release of Mr. Bipin Joshi, who has been held captive by Hamas since October 7, 2023. We hope Mr. Joshi will be released soon,” the foreign minister said in a post on X.

Earlier that day, Deuba held a phone call with Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi to make the same appeal, urging Qatar to take special initiatives.

Joshi’s family has remained in touch with the Israeli embassy in Nepal with reassurances of safe release. However, the reassurances and actions from Nepal’s government have not been enough, according to the family.

Pressure has been mounting on the Nepali government to take swift action and ensure the safe return of the student.

“We still have the same fear in our hearts—what if war happens again?” Joshi’s mother Padma said in an interview days after the Hamas-Israel ceasefire agreement was announced in January.

“The government must take the initiative to ensure that my innocent son returns safely to Nepal,” she added.

According to Board of Deputies of British Jews, Joshi is set to be released in phase two of the Gaza ceasefire.

59 captives remaining in Gaza, 24 of whom Israel believes are alive.

The second phase entails that all captives be released by Hamas, and that Israel fully withdraws from the besieged territory. 

Back at Joshi’s village home, near the Indian border, around 700 kilometers west of Kathmandu, his family leaves his slippers by the door, holding onto the hope that one day, he will walk through it again.