Family of Nepali hostage Bipin Joshi publish video from shortly after October 7

The family of Bipin Joshi, a Nepali agricultural student taken hostage by Hamas, has released a video of him that was filmed shortly after he was abducted in the October 7, 2023, attack on Kibbutz Alumim.

The video, which was recovered by the Israel Defense Forces and shared with the family, is thought to have been filmed in November 2023, according to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of most of the remaining 48 hostages.

No sign of life has been received for Joshi since that month. In May, Israel said his fate was unknown, but the family is holding out hope.

His family said earlier today that it would publish the video to mark the second anniversary of the Hamas massacre.

In the 33-second-long video, Joshi introduces himself in English, likely at the demand of his captors.

“My name is Bipin Joshi. I am from Nepal. I am 23 years old. I came here to Israel 25 days ago. I came here for the “Learn and Earn program,” I am a student,” he says. “I work in agricultural farm[ing] in citrus and lemon farm.”

At the end of the video, Joshi looks at something off-screen, without moving his head.

In a statement released via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Joshi’s family says the video has become “an anchor of firm faith that he is still alive.”

“It is not easy for us to release it to the world,” the family says of the video, “but we are in critical and historic days. Days that will decide whether the living hostages will return to their families and the fallen for a proper burial, or whether we will continue to wallow in pain.”