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Family of Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi arrives in Israel to seek son’s return

cnnnews.com By Canada Nepal

August 14, 2025
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Terrorists kidnapped Joshi, an agriculture student, from Kibbutz Alumim durin the October 7 attack, and no sign of life has been received from him since November 2023
Jerusalem, Padma Joshi, whose son Bipin Joshi is held hostage in the Gaza Strip, speaks to reporters after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on August 11, 2025. (Screen capture via Ynet)
Padma Joshi, whose son Bipin Joshi is held hostage in the Gaza Strip, speaks to reporters after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on August 11, 2025. (Screen capture via Ynet)
-The mother and sister of hostage Bipin Joshi, a Nepali agricultural volunteer taken captive from Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, landed in Israel on Monday for their first visit since their loved one’s abduction.

Reporters surrounded the pair after they exited customs at Ben Gurion Airport, seeking a first comment from them.

“Please, rescue my son,” said Joshi’s mother, Padma Joshi, as she broke down in tears. “Hamas, bring [him] back home now. Please, return [him] home, Hamas. Please. Please.

 

Joshi’s sister, Pushpa, 17, thanked the Israeli people for their support and the government officials who flew the family in.

She said that her brother came to Israel to study as part of his academic program and was caught in a war that has nothing to do with him.

Bipin Joshi (left) and his fellow workers seen on a farm in southern Israel in September 2023

“We just want him back,” she said. “It’s too much for me and my family. It’s been almost two years. We can’t help but think about his condition — what he is doing there, whether he is getting food, whether he is getting medicine.”

Waiting at the airport for the family were four friends of Bipin, who studied with him in university in Nepal, came with him to Israel in September 2023, and were wounded during the Hamas-led attack on October, but managed to evade captivity.

The president of the Israeli college where Bipin studied agriculture also came to welcome his loved ones.

Bipin Joshi, a Nepali farming student, was taken captive from Kibbutz Alumim on October 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists. (Courtesy)
“He’s a very curious and very positive person. He always had the thought that he wanted to do something new, and he always wanted to try a lot of things. He also loved music,” one of Bipin’s friends told the Ynet news site, adding that he loved playing guitar and soccer.

Joshi was hiding with other agricultural students and Thai workers at an outdoor shelter at Alumim on October 7, and according to accounts, caught one of the grenades thrown at them and hurled it outside.

During their visit to Israel, Joshi’s family will visit Alumim where he lived, meet his friends and receive intelligence assessments from government officials on his condition.

They are also expected to meet with President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry and the Directorate for Hostages, Missing Persons and Returnees at the Prime Minister’s Office.

The statement noted that “since November 2023, no sign of life has been received from [Joshi], and there is deep concern for his life.”

In May this year, Joshi was among three hostages, the others being Tamir Nimrodi and fellow Thai captive Pinta Nattapong, whose fates were determined by Israel to be unknown.

Bipin Familys pic

Nattapong, the only other foreign hostage held in Gaza at the time, was later announced dead after his body was recovered in a June IDF operation.

Hamas holds fifty hostages total, of whom twenty are believed to be alive. Twenty-eight have been confirmed dead by the Israel Defense Forces. The government has expressed “grave concern” about the fates of two others, understood to be Joshi and Nimrodi.

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