Dipesh Raj Bist, 24, a Nepali student from the village of Lekum in Darchula, was murdered by Hamas in Kibbutz Alumim on October 7.
He is survived by his mother, Parwati, and his younger siblings; he was predeceased by his father, Ashok. His body was sent back to Nepal and arrived there on October 22. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Mahakali River in the Kanchanpur district in a religious ceremony a day later.
Bist was one of 10 Nepali students studying and working in Israel who were murdered that day. The group ran to a bomb shelter when the rocket fire began, and were slaughtered inside by a group of Hamas terrorists.
Survivor Dhanbahadur Chaudhari told the Guardian that the terrorists threw grenades inside the bunker and fired volleys of bullets: “When I woke up I was covered in blood and I could see my friends dead and injured around me. One friend didn’t have legs, another didn’t have hands. There were dead bodies of my friends in the door of the bunker.”
Another survivor, KC Pramod, told the Guardian: “We started shouting ‘We are Nepali, we are Nepali’ but they didn’t listen to anyone, they just kept firing and threw two grenades into the bunker.”
Bist was among 265 Nepali students studying in Israel under an 11-month “Learn and Earn” program, who had all arrived only a few weeks before the Hamas onslaught, though they were not all situated near the Gaza border.
According to the Nepali Times, Raj was his family’s sole caregiver after his father Ashok died of cancer. He was pursuing a degree in agriculture at Far-Western University in Tikapur Kailali, Nepal.
The newspaper reported that his mother, Parwati Bist, fainted after hearing the news of his death.
“He used to call our mother every evening,” Dipesh’s sister Mamata told the news outlet. “But when we called him on Saturday we could not reach him and started getting really worried.”
Mamata recalled her late brother as being “brilliant and studious,” and seeking to earn money to help their younger brother pay for medical school.
His grandfather, Hariraj Bist, told the Naya Patrika Daily that his grandson “had a desire to pursue public service in his country.”
“Dipesh Raj thought that he should do something in his country rather than abroad,” his grandfather added, noting that “he went to a foreign land” to gain experience and skills before his return home. “Our family has been hit by thunder.”
