Twenty-two among 48 hostages held by Hamas are believed to have been alive. According to the Associated Press, Bipin Joshi, a Nepali student, also features in the list of hostages, which Israel believes are still alive.
However, according to the list of hostages published by CNN recently, Bipin featured neither in the dead nor alive list.
With the list of hostages featuring Nepali student Bipin and the news of their release, the hope of Mahananda Joshi, the father of Bipin, the resident of Bhimdatta Municipality-3, Kanchanpur, has been rekindled yet again.
(Bipin Joshi's mother, father and younger sister)
A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was reached at the initiative of American President Donald Trump on Friday. With the start of the ceasefire, the remaining hostages are expected to be released within 72 hours (or by Monday). Israel is set to release around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
Bipin had been abducted from Kibbutz during the Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped.
As many as 67,000 Palestinians including women and children have been killed and around 90% of the Gaza population of some 2 million displaced during the two-year ruinous war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
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