Gaza ceasefire deal kindles hope of hostage son's return to Nepal

In a remote village in western Nepal, thousands of miles from Israel, Mahananda Joshi sat anxiously at home on Thursday, his phone clutched tightly in his hand. The phone has not left his side and has never been on silent. He is waiting for news about his son, Bipin Joshi. Bipin, a 23-year-old Nepalese agriculture student, was kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza.

Every time the phone rings, Mahananda, a local teacher, thinks it might be news about Bipin, or even his deepest hope – to hear his son’s voice. "Unfortunately, it's always someone else calling," Mahananda said. Bipin was one of dozens of foreign workers kidnapped along with Israelis during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Twenty-four people have since been released—23 from Thailand and one from the Philippines—but Bipin and nine others remain in captivity. The reason remains unclear. Bipin’s mother, Padma, last spoke to him on October 6, she said, the day before he was kidnapped. He assured her that he was eating well and showed her the clothes he was wearing. The family next saw him in video footage taken at Gaza's Shifa Hospital, which Israeli officials showed them and asked them to identify him. This confirmed that he was still alive.

The BBC now understands that Bipin is believed to still be alive, but Nepal’s ambassador to Israel, Dan Prasad Pandit, said he has not received "concrete information" about Bipin's condition or whereabouts. Mahananda, Bipin’s mother Padma, and 18-year-old sister Pushpa live in a white single-story house in the village of Bishpuri Mahendranagar, near the Indian border. They said that as of Thursday, they had received no official news, only news of the announced ceasefire agreement.

This news gave them new hope. “I feel like he will message me today or tomorrow, saying ‘Mom, I am free, I am coming home immediately,’” Padma said. But even if there is relief for the Joshi family, it will not come quickly. "Everything could collapse." Like the other nine foreign workers still held hostage, Bipin is not expected to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire, which will prioritize the release of older men, women, and children.

The family’s fear is that anything could change during the wait. "Everything could collapse," Padma said, with tears in her eyes. The family’s ordeal began on the day of the attack. Bipin was one of several Nepalese students at a kibbutz in southern Israel that day, and Mahananda, a teacher at a local school, received a call from one of the students saying that Bipin had been kidnapped. At the time, Mahananda knew nothing about the Hamas attack or what was happening in Israel, and he struggled to understand what he was hearing.

He later learned that 10 Nepalese students had died in the attack, and one of them—his son—appeared to have been taken hostage. Mahananda and Padma said on Thursday that this sense of being cut off from the outside world has been agonizing for 15 months. The pain of each hostage family is great, but for those far from Israel, there is an added sense of isolation. "It's been a very lonely experience," Mahananda said.

Nepal’s ambassador to Israel, Pandit, told the BBC that he has been in regular contact with the family and has visited the village. Mahananda paints a slightly different picture, saying that the family did receive many visits from officials in the early days of the war, but that they have become increasingly isolated as time has gone on. “Since the new ceasefire agreement was reached, no one has come to visit us or communicate with us,” he said. “Everything we know comes from the news.”

A spokesperson for Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office said that he has been working with the families of hostages for the past 15 months, stating that they treat all hostages equally, whether Israeli or foreign, and are working to secure the release of all of them. For some families, the news of the ceasefire brings hope that their 15-month ordeal is nearing its end, and they will see their loved ones again in a matter of weeks. For other families, like the Joshis, any hope must be tempered.

The longer they wait, the more likely the ceasefire agreement could break down. On Thursday, at their home in Bishpuri Mahendranagar, Bipin's sister, Pushpa, spoke while holding a picture of her brother. Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke of his return home. She believes he will come back. "When I see him again, I will hug him," she said, "and then cry."