Israel and Hamas on Friday began a prisoner exchange during their temporary ceasefire, but a Nepali student who was abducted on 7 October from a kibbutz near the Gaza border was not among the foreign hostages released on Friday.&nbsp; Bipin Joshi, 23, survived two Hamas raids on bunkers and was seen by fellow-students to have been led away at gunpoint by the militants. Earlier this week, the <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1726319791865016493">Israel Defence Force released a captured cctv footage </a>of the Al-Shifa hospital purportedly showing the Nepali student being dragged into the hospital by Hamas militants on 7 October.&nbsp; The IDF claimed that a Nepali and a Thai hostage abducted by Hamas had been taken to Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital following the 7 October attacks. One of the hostages looked wounded and was on a stretcher, while the other was being dragged down the corridor of the hospital.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231125061120_920d38eb4c911374a194895466276bab77fd0942e5c66c26b72c00214347e460.png" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20231125061120_920d38eb4c911374a194895466276bab77fd0942e5c66c26b72c00214347e460" data-rendition-name="original" width="582" height="618" loading="lazy" alt="IDF Bipin Joshi"> </figure>  That video has not been verified, and Bipin Joshi has not been positively identified in it.&nbsp; Hamas released 13 Israelis on Friday during the first swap under the temporary ceasefire deal. Ten Thai agriculture workers and a Filipino were also released under a separate agreement facilitated by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas. In exchange, Israel released 39 Palestinian detainees, among whom 22 women, two girls, and 15 young boys who had been held in Israeli prisons.&nbsp; The Nepal government had been in discussion with the governments of Israel, Qatar, and the International Red Cross to facilitate Joshi’s release.Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Foreign Minister N P Saud even made a special request on Friday to Qatar’s state minister for Foreign Affairs, Soltan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi, who is on a two-day official trip to Kathmandu. Qatar, Egypt, and the US have taken the lead in negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Thailand’s Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara had travelled to Qatar and Egypt to seek diplomatic mediation with Hamas to free its workers. Thirty-two Thai workers were killed by Hamas and 30 were taken hostage, the biggest group of foreign captives taken by Hamas &nbsp;on 7 Occtober.&nbsp; Ten Nepali students from western Nepal under an 'earn and learn' program of the Israel government were killed in Kibbutz Alumim, and Bipin Joshi was said to have been taken away along with the Thais from the bunker they had taken cover in. Nepal’s Foreign Minister NP Saud had gone to Israel during the repatriation flight to bring back 250 Nepali citizens, including students, stranded in Israel. The Qatari Minister is said to have assured Nepali ofcicials that his country would assist in negotiating Joshi’s release. Foreign minister Saud has said video received from the Israeli government shows Bipin Joshi was safe, but other officials have said it is not confirmed.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/waiting-for-bipin-joshi">Waiting for Bipin Joshi</a>

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Hamas releases Thais, but where is Bipin?

The Israel-Hamas conflict has seen a fortnight of horrific carnage of innocents by both sides, but families in two faraway Asian countries are also grieving — in Nepal and Thailand.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/war-in-israel-earthquake-and-grief-in-nepal" target="_blank">Ten Nepali students working in Kibbutz Alumim were killed</a> and one is still missing, presumed to have been taken hostage. So far, 30 Thai farm workers have also been confirmed killed by Hamas gunmen in the early morning of 7 October, and 19 were abducted.
The missing Nepali, Bipin Joshi from Dhangadi, was hiding with other Nepalis and Thais when Hamas fighters threw a grenade into their bunker. Joshi had the presence of mind to hurl the grenade out, but another one exploded killing some of the Nepalis and Thais.
The surviving Nepalis and Thais then fled to another nearby bunker that they thought was safer, but Hamas fighters stormed that one too, and sprayed those inside with gunfire. They then took away seven of the Thais as hostages.
Those are among the total 19 Thai nationals who were abducted, and the missing Nepali is suspected to be among them.
As in Nepal, media commentators in Thailand have pointed out that despite the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation of their land, the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians and foreigners by Hamas was counterproductive.
‘Hamas has made a bad name for the Palestinian cause, eliciting condemnation and opposition all the way over here in Thailand,’ wrote <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2667609/a-thai-view-on-the-hamas-israel-war" target="_blank">Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University in the Bangkok Post</a>.&nbsp;
‘For the Thai people, Hamas' killing spree on Thai workers is unfathomable. Thailand has never done anything to harm Hamas nor caused any trouble for the inhabitants of the Palestinian territories.’&nbsp;
Thai media have quoted survivors who have returned who say that Hamas could have specifically targeted Thais because local Palestinians were resentful of foreigners taking agriculture jobs aways from them. The Israel government started replacing Palestinian farm and construction workers with migrant labour from various Asian countries after a spurt in militant attacks during the 1987 Intifada.
While the Nepalis in Israel were mainly young university students studying agriculture on 11-month <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-learn-and-earn-from-israel" target="_blank">‘earn and learn’</a> schemes in Israel, the Thais here were long term farm workers.&nbsp;
There are an estimated 30,000 Thai workers in Israel’s farms, and 8,400 of those in the conflict zone are now asking their government to urgently repatriate them. Some 700 arrived in Bangkok on charter flights on Friday. The bodies of 8 of the Thai workers killed were also flown in, while the others will be sent home after being identified.
There were 265 Nepali students in various parts of Israel, and 18 of the 10 who were killed were in Kibbutz Alumin. Most of them were repatriated to Kathmandu on a Nepal Airlines flight on 12 October. Four of the bodies of Nepalis arrive in Kathmandu on Sunday.
Just like the Nepalis who were killed were from poor farming families in the remote far western districts of Nepal, most of the Thai farm workers are also from Thailand’s poorest northeastern regions.
Similar to the Nepali good samaritan like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/bringing-nepal-to-israel" target="_blank">caregiver Prabha Ghimire</a> and others, who have helped wounded Nepali workers in hospitals in Tel Aviv, the press here has also been all praise for Thai women in Israel who have gone out of their way to help their compatriots caught up in the war.
Viphavadi Vannachai, 40, a Thai married to an Israeli travelled to dangerous areas on the Gaza border to rescue stranded workers, help the wounded and assisted with repatriation of those who wanted to return.
Thai families of those taken hostage have pleaded for their release, saying they had “nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine conflict” and were there “simply there to earn money”.

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As in Nepal, Thais mourn nationals killed in Israel

Nepal’s Embassy in Israel has confirmed that 10 of the students at a kibbutz in southern Israel near the Gaza border were killed in the Hamas attack on Saturday, highlighting once more the dangers Nepalis face as the diaspora spreads to war zones around the world. The ten were among 17 students, all from western Nepal, under the Israel government’s ‘learn and learn’ program assigned to the Kibbutz Alumim when it was attacked by Hamas militants from Gaza. The Embassy has now released the names of the ten, widely circulated on social media, with one student still listed as missing. Four others were injured, two are safe. There has been no confirmation of earlier news that Nepalis were among the hostages Hamas took back with them into Gaza.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231008181020_9e73888ba4ebd6486ed7bf20fec8acb5cb102cb2d142790a652992ec3e56a043.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20231008181020_9e73888ba4ebd6486ed7bf20fec8acb5cb102cb2d142790a652992ec3e56a043" data-rendition-name="original" width="957" height="1024" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Hamas conflict"> <figcaption>Gaza Strip</figcaption> </figure>  Earlier on Sunday, Nepal’s Foreign Minister N P Said had met the Israeli Ambassador in Kathmandu <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-learn-and-earn-from-israel">Hanan Godar</a>, before it became clear that there were Nepalis among the fatalities at the farm.&nbsp; There are currently 265 agriculture students from various parts of rural Nepal who are in Israel to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/down-in-sherpa-s-farm">gain experience in farming</a> while earning money working in the kibbutzes. There are another 5,000 Nepali caregivers serving as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/demand-grows-for-nepali-caregivers-in-israel">nurses for the elderly in Israel</a>. “Most Nepali students here are frightened and want the Nepal government to fly them home,” Ramesh Joshi, a Nepali worker who is helping with the rescue told Nepali Times by phone from Israel.&nbsp; “The fighting was so intense even the ambulance and army couldn’t get to southern Israel. We all had to stay in our bunkers for safety,” added Joshi, who is with the Non-Resident Nepalese Association in Israel. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trapped-in-ukraine">Trapped in Ukraine</a> Nepalis involved in the relief operations said some of the Nepalis who had been injured had been calling for help, but even the Israeli Army could not reach them because of the fighting. A Nepali agriculture student Louish Rijal who spoke to Nepali Times from a bunker somewhere in southern Israel on Sunday evening said the Nepalis with him were very scared and wanted to be rescued.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231008181056_35fcf4fe091824119635e336663fd86d857fc518cd740fdb99ec0df116872695.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20231008181056_35fcf4fe091824119635e336663fd86d857fc518cd740fdb99ec0df116872695" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1098" loading="lazy" alt="Israel-Hamas conflict Nepalis students"> <figcaption>Louish Rijal</figcaption> </figure>  "We hear about our friends in other farms dying or injured, and we do not understand why the embassy cannot rescue us. Who is our guardian, the school here, the university in Nepal, our employer, or the government? We are going to die of fear if we keep hiding here." This is not the first time that non-combatant Nepalis have been killed in war zones overseas. Twelve Nepalese hostages working in an American facility in Iraq were executed after capture in 2004 by the Ansar al-Sunna group, and the video of the killings aired on television sparked riots in Kathmandu.    13 Nepali security guards who were working for a subcontractor recruitment company were <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/canada-settlement-with-families-of-nepali-guards">killed in a Taliban attack on the Canadian Embassy in Kabul in 2016</a>. The Canadian government was sued and ultimately paid out compensation. "We are still gathering information about exact casualties and relief, from Israel about Nepalis, and we will be sharing that along with the government's response on Monday," said Sewa Lamsal at the Foreign Ministry in Kathmandu. The Ministry released a statement earlier Sunday that condemned the Hamas attack, without naming the Palestinian militant group. It began: 'The Government of Nepal strongly condemns the terrorist attack on Israel today ... at this critical hour we convey our solidarity with the government of Israel.' --- Translation of an audio of a Nepali student trapped at the Kibbutz Alumim calling for help that is circulating on social media: A total of 49 of us from Sudur Paschim University were here as part of the learn and earn 11 months internship program. We were happy, we had dreams. But just two days before we were to receive our first paycheck, the Palestinians attacked. Our farm, in particular, wasn’t affected but when we made videos and shared them with the media, we started getting calls from other Nepali students who were shot and were crying for help. We couldn’t do anything. Even our group of 11 has been stuck here in a dark bunker since 7AM yesterday. We don’t have food, just water. But it’s cold in here and we are starting to get sick. We reached out to the embassy and officials but they only have false assurances for us. But is that enough to save our lives? We request all the Nepalis, foreign ministry and leaders of all political parties to rescue us at the earliest. Do not think of us students but rather as your sons and daughters.

israel-hamas-conflict

Hamas releases Thais, but where is Bipin?

As in Nepal, Thais mourn nationals killed in Israel

Nepalis confirmed killed in Hamas attack