Bipin Joshi killed: Nepali hostage declared dead; Hamas hands over body to Israel – The Times of India

Nepali citizen Bipin Joshi, who was abducted by Hamas, was declared dead by Israeli authorities as they received caskets holding what Hamas said were the bodies of four slain hostages.Nepal’s Ambassador to Israel, Dhan Prasad Pandit, told the Nepali media outlet Republica that Joshi’s remains were en route to Tel Aviv late Monday night.“We have received information about the body of Bipin handed over to Israeli authorities by Hamas, and it is being taken to Tel Aviv and will arrive here in a few hours,” Pandit said.Pandit added that Israeli authorities will conduct a DNA test to confirm Joshi’s identity. Only after proper identification will the body be flown back to Nepal. Before repatriation, formal final rites will be carried out by the Israeli government, and the body will be sent home in coordination with the Nepali embassy.Bipin Joshi arrived in Israel from his native Nepal a month before the attack. He had been the only non-Israeli hostage believed to be alive in Gaza. He came to Israel on a student exchange to work and study agriculture at Kibbutz Alumim on the Gaza border.Ten of the 17 Nepali students in the program were killed during the attack. Joshi, who was able to throw a number of live grenades out of the bomb shelter where they were hiding, was injured and kidnapped. Joshi’s sister, 17-year-old Pushpa Joshi, regularly travels eight hours each way by bus to Kathmandu from her home in western Nepal to lobby officials to secure her brother’s release.In August, his family traveled to Israel to meet with President Isaac Herzog and join other families demonstrating in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square. Last week, Joshi’s family released footage of him in captivity, filmed under duress, from around November 2023.Bipin Joshi was abducted from the Alumim kibbutz in southern Israel during the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and had remained missing.Hopes had recently risen after the Israeli army recovered a video from Gaza showing Joshi alive. Despite this, his name was not included in the latest list of hostages scheduled for release.This comes after Hamas released 20 living hostages, while Israel released more than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners as part of a broader truce aimed at stabilising the Gaza ceasefire.US President Donald Trump, alongside other regional leaders, signed the Gaza ceasefire deal. It is unclear exactly what was in the document, but one image captured by a photographer shows that the top half of the page included a number of pursuits and commitments.The bottom half included the signatures and titles of regional leaders and ceasefire mediators from the US, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, CNN reported.After the signing, Trump took centre stage at a podium with world leaders standing behind him. In his speech, the US president called himself a dealmaker and said the agreement has the potential to be the “greatest.” He also emphasised the historic nature of the deal and the unity displayed in this moment.