TEL AVIV, Aug 15: After nearly two years with no news of his fate, the family of Nepali student Bipin Joshi have come to Israel to plead for his release from captivity in Gaza.
Soon after Palestinian militants kidnapped Joshi from a farm in southern Israel during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, all trace of the agriculture student vanished, plunging his family into agonising turmoil thousands of miles away.
From a remote part of western Nepal, the family were so far removed from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that when Joshi's sister learned of his abduction, she said she hadn't even known what Hamas was.
Still with no sign of life since the earliest days of the war, Joshi's sister and mother obtained passports and left their country for the first time to push for his return.
"I decided to come here to raise my voice for my brother," 18-year-old Pushpa Joshi told AFP at a hotel in Israel's coastal hub of Tel Aviv.
"Few people know about him, so please don't forget him," she said, describing her brother as an "innocent student who went to Israel only to learn".
Bipin, who was 22 when he was kidnapped, had arrived in Israel to work at a farm just weeks before Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its attack that triggered the devastating Gaza war.
In Alumim, the kibbutz community near the Gaza border where he had stayed, 22 foreign farm workers were killed during the attack. Ten were from Nepal and 12 from Thailand.
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Bipin is one of four foreign hostages still held by militants in the Palestinian territory, of which three have been declared dead.
Israel on Monday said that "there is grave concern for his wellbeing".
- 'Broke our hearts' -
Pushpa said she has had no news of her brother since November 2023.
That month, the Israeli military released what it said were images from a Gaza hospital showing "a Nepalese civilian", whom it did not name, being transported by militants through the medical facility on the day of the attack.
More than two dozen foreigners, mostly Thai, were taken hostage during the Hamas attack but most have since been released during two short-lived truces.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Pushpa said that hearing what some of the released hostages had experienced in captivity spurred the decision to come to Israel.
The final push, she said, had come from recent videos published by Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad showing hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David looking emaciated and weak.
"We saw this video together and it broke our hearts," Pushpa said.
"My mum cried a lot that day and even my father cried a lot... that day we didn't eat anything."
The family has met with the Nepali government on several occasions to discuss the plight of her brother, Pushpa said, but they were yet to see any results.
The Nepali foreign ministry earlier this year said the government had engaged with world leaders "to request his release".
- 'One day we will meet' -
Pushpa and her mother Padma, 46, landed in Israel on Monday for a 10-day trip, involving a visit to Alumim, where Bipin's friends say he saved their lives by throwing a grenade back at the assailants storming the community.
"When I saw the place from where my brother was kidnapped, that makes me too much emotional and makes my heart so heavy," Pushpa said.
She described her only brother as a "very helpful and kind" person who likes to play football, meet new people, write rap music and play the guitar.
During their visit, the Joshi family are expected to meet Israeli officials and other hostage families.
Pushpa thanked the Israeli government for their support and urged them to "please think about the life of the hostages".
Addressing her brother, she said: "Please don't lose your hope".
"We all are with you... I'm doing here whatever I can," she added.
"One day we will meet and see you soon, I know you are very brave."