Bipin Joshi's body returned from Israel after hostage exchange

The body of Bipin Joshi, a Nepali agricultural student who was abducted during the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel and later found to have been killed in captivity, was returned to Nepal this week after a farewell ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport and subsequent repatriation, officials said. Tributes were held in Tel Aviv and Kathmandu as authorities prepared to transfer his remains to his hometown for final rites.

Israeli and Nepali officials said Hamas handed over Joshi’s body to Israeli authorities as part of a temporary ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange. Israeli forensic authorities established his identity through DNA testing. Joshi, who had arrived in Israel weeks earlier to participate in an agricultural training program, was taken from Kibbutz Alumim on October 7 during the militant group’s assault that triggered the wider Gaza conflict.

The farewell event at Ben Gurion was attended by Israeli officials, soldiers and members of the Nepali community. His remains were flown to Kathmandu and received at Tribhuvan International Airport, where Prime Minister Sushila Karki and other senior officials paid their respects. Karki draped the national flag over the...