It is through videos broadcast by the Israeli army to prove that the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza is the HQ of Hamas that the Nepalese public had confirmation, through a fleeting and blurry image, that Bipin Joshin , a 23-year-old student, was not killed on October 7 and that he was brought to Gaza after the massacre with more than 200 hostages.
On Sunday, November 19, the IDF account broadcast two short sequences, filmed by surveillance cameras at Al-Shifa hospital. The videos were filmed shortly before 11 a.m. on October 7. We see armed Hamas members taking two men into the establishment.
One of the hostages is only wearing boxer shorts. He is injured in the arm and lying on a stretcher. The other, dressed in a light blue t-shirt and dark blue shorts, and wearing beach sandals. He walks, without it being possible to see if he is injured or not. He is the Nepalese hostage described by the IDF. This is Bipin Joshi, who went missing on October 7.
The last image we had of him (broadcast on November 6) showed him during the Hamas terrorist attack. We see him in Kibbutz Alumim, filmed by a surveillance camera, which indicates 10:20 a.m. That was thirty-five minutes before he appeared in the hospital. We can see his light blue t-shirt and his shorts. He is accompanied by several prisoners. The man holding Bipin, dressed in a darker blue T-shirt and black pants, also appears alongside him in the hospital footage.
This new fleeting video of Bipin Joshi in Al-Shifa confirms that he was taken hostage. Of which there was no public visual proof until then. The 23-year-old young man had not been found, neither among the survivors of the kibbutz nor among the ten bodies of Nepalese students massacred that day. But we knew, through the testimonies collected, that he had, on the morning of October 7, saved several of his comrades by throwing back a grenade thrown by Hamas. He became a hero for this, not only in the Nepalese national press. THE Wall Street Journal published on November 11 a long investigation into himtitled: “A Nepalese student saves his friends from Hamas, before being reported missing.”
Pomegranate returned
Bipin Joshi left Nepal on September 13 for Israel. “I’m going to discover the world”he told his parents, according to the Wall Street Journal. Around fifty of his comrades arrived at the same time as him as part of a “learn and earn” agricultural exchange program. Seventeen of them ended up in Alumim, joining Thais who were already working on the kibbutz.
Before October 7, Bipin and his comrades had experienced rocket alerts. But they would have quickly realized, on the day of the Hamas massacre, that it was something different. One of the survivors testified: “We heard gunshots at 5:30 a.m. We immediately went to the bunker.” There’s no need to panic yet, then. There is an image on social media of Bipin with the other Nepalese students, taken from the bunker where they are refugees. Bipin is in the foreground with his light blue t-shirt. He smiles again. Behind him his friends are laughing.
An hour later, says the same survivor, “Terrorists entered the bunker and opened fire. Two of our friends fell. We closed our eyes. The terrorists left after dropping two grenades.
The following scene was reported by many Nepali media, always according to the testimony of survivors : Bipin manages to grab a grenade, and throw it outside before it explodes. The second explodes, seriously injuring several of his comrades.
According to the testimony of the same survivor, three Israeli police officers then arrived. “They left the five injured, and took the other twelve to another place. It was a bunker with a kitchen.” According to Nepali Times, around twenty Thai workers had also found refuge there. A video shows several young men hiding in this kitchen, among bags of rice. THE Wall Street Journal claims that the images were shot by Bipin himself.
Another survivor says that at 9:30 a.m., terrorists finally found the young men hiding: “They grabbed the three policemen and started shooting at us. I fell among my friends. I realized later that I was alive, after regaining consciousness.”
According to the article in Nepali Times, Bipin survived the massacre because he was taken before by the men of Hamas. Him and a few others. “They took seven Thai workers, and one of the Nepalese students, Bipin Joshi, then shot everyone else, throwing several grenades.”
Impossible to know if he is alive today
Images published on the Telegram channel of “first responders” show, in this second bunker where the video was taken, the ground entirely covered in blood. The elements visible in the sequence confirm that this is indeed the same room where the Nepalese students were taking refuge. In another photo, also taken after the liberation of the kibbutz, we can see numerous bodies in body bags, outside the same building.
Several days later, the results will be drawn up by the Nepalese authorities: ten Nepalese students were killed in Alumim. Six survived, including four injured. There remained Bipin, missing.
It has been confirmed since Sunday, November 19, that Bipin Joshi left Alumim alive, and entered Al-Shifa at 10:55 a.m. on October 7, apparently with another Thai hostage. It is not known whether he was injured at the time. It is impossible to know what has become of him since then, or if he is even alive.
Nearly 240 hostages are being held by Hamas or other autonomous terrorist groups. Around sixty have been killed during bombings since October 7, without it being possible to verify this information.