His family clung to the hope he had survived Hamas captivity. Then came a crushing blow

Kathmandu, Nepal: When the truce was struck, the family thanked God. Briefly, there was hope that Bipin Joshi might finally come home.

On Monday evening, after two years held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he did return – in a coffin delivered to his home in the verdant foothills of far western Nepal.

As millions lit candles in their homes to celebrate Tihar, Nepal’s festival of lights, few did so in his home town, Mahendranagar. Dozens gathered to await his body. When it arrived, his family broke down in tears, still in disbelief that he had become caught in someone else’s war, thousands of kilometres away.

Joshi was 23 when he left Nepal for Israel as part of an agricultural study program. Less than three weeks into his time there, he was taken captive by Hamas from a southern Israeli k