On a small farm in Nepal, a father mourns the death and destroyed “dreams” of his 25-year-old son, one of ten Nepali agricultural students massacred during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Just last month, Ashish Chaudhary’s family was imagining a better future, thanks to the 11-month Israeli Learn and Earn program the young man had joined.
“I thought it would be good for him and give him a bright future,” said his father Bejhulal Dangaura, with tears in his eyes, in his village in Kailali district in the west of the country. “If I had known of the danger, I would have stopped him from going.” Ashish Chaudhary had been assigned to Kibbutz Aloumim, near the border with Gaza, on the front line during the attack by the Islamist movement.
In total, more than 1,400 people in Israel were shot, stabbed or burned alive during this attack, the worst in the country’s history. At least 2,750 people lost their lives in retaliatory strikes on Gaza by Israel. Like Ashish Chaudhary, nine other Nepali students were massacred, four were injured and one is missing.