Submit your Article

The government has decided to provide Rs 1m in relief to the families of Nepali students who lost their lives in Israel.

Government Spokesperson Rekha Sharma informed that an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday decided to allocate the amount to the families of 10 Nepalis who were killed in Saturday’s Hamas attack on Israel. The meeting also resolved to find ways to relocate trapped Nepali citizens to safe areas.

Similarly, the government has declared a national mourning day on Tuesday. National flags will be hoisted at half-mast in all government offices and diplomatic missions of Nepal to mourn the victims. 

A rapid action team has been formed under the leadership of Foreign Minister NP Saud to rescue the Nepalis trapped in Israel. The team has decided to have an airplane on standby and establish coordination with the Israeli side to repatriate the bodies of Nepali students. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal spoke with a Nepali student hiding in a bunker following the attack. Dahal held a video call with Bipin Subedi, and assured that the government was doing its best to rescue all Nepali citizens from Israel at the earliest. 

Dahal’s personal secretary Ramesh Malla said that the prime minister told Subedi that the government has been making efforts to rescue Nepalis based in Israel for the past three days. 

“Conversations are happening at the foreign ministerial level, and regular talks are taking place with the Embassy of Israel,” Prime Minister Dahal told Subedi.

Prime Minister Dahal has instructed authorities concerned to understand the situation in Israel and to identify the deceased and bring their bodies to Nepal at the earliest. 

Malla said that there was a delay in evacuating the students hiding in bunkers, because the Israeli side considered it a security risk.

Social media posts and videos suggest that around 32 students from the war zone were taken to a safe place on Monday. The Israeli army has initiated the movement of students in Israel’s Sedot Negev to safe locations.

Meanwhile, the Sudurpaschim provincial government has also announced to provide Rs 200,000 each to the families of those students killed in Israel. In a statement issued on Monday, Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah announced that the provincial government would provide support to the families of the deceased. He also requested the federal governments of both countries to conduct search and rescue efforts and assist in bringing back the bodies of Nepali students.

The opposition parties, CPN-UML and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), have asked Speaker Devraj Ghimire to pass a special resolution from Parliament to rescue Nepalis stuck in Israel. In a meeting held at Singha Durbar, the two parties emphasized that they would raise the Israel issue intensively in the Parliament through adjournment motions, motions of public importance, or resolution motions.

UML Chief Whip Padam Giri urged the government to take a serious interest in the situation of the 10 Nepalis who were killed in the Hamas attack, emphasizing that the condition of other Nepalis there is critical.

Nepali Congress MP Arjun Narsingha KC also strongly demanded that the government immediately bring home the bodies of the students who died in Israel. 

Addressing the Parliament session on Monday, KC urged the government to promptly repatriate the bodies of the 10 Nepali students. He also asked the government to ascertain the number of Nepalis in Israel and inform Parliament. 

“We have received news that about 123,000 people have been displaced in Israel. The details of how many Nepalis are among them should be presented to the Parliament,” he said.

Several other parliamentarians, including Gokul Prasad Baskota, Ishwar Bahadur Rijal, Chitra Bahadur KC, Anjani Shrestha, Anisha Nepali, Abdul Khan, Amanlal Modi, Amar Bahadur Raymajhi, Amrit Lal Rajbanshi, Ishwari Gharti, Urmila Majhi, Kiran Kumar Shah and Geeta Basnet, also demanded for a prompt rescue of the Nepali citizens from Israel. 

Late on Monday, Prime Minister Dahal called an all-party meeting where he requested parties stand united on the Israel incident. One of the leaders in the meeting said all  parties share a unified stance on the issue of Israel. “The cross-party leaders suggested that the government provide  accurate and timely information about the state of Nepali there,” he told ApEx.

Janakpur youth killed after leaving for Israel just 26 days ago

Family members of Anand Sah have been devastated after he was killed along with nine other Nepalis in Saturday’s Hamas attack on Israel. 

The 25-year-old from Laxminiya Rural Municipality, Dhanusha, had left for Israel just 26 days ago. Eldest among four siblings, Anand was his family’s only support.  

His parents Soman and Shuvakala, and sisters, Sunita, Saraswati and Aarati are inconsolable. Neighbors and relatives have gathered at their house to comfort them, but to no avail.

Soman and Shuvakala have been drifting in and out of consciousness. When they come to their senses, they cry out for their deceased son. “Where did you go? Why don’t you come back? Who is going to look after us?” 

Neighbor Mithilesh Sah says Anand’s death has dealt an immeasurable blow to his family.

“Anand was the eldest of the four children and the only son to his parents. So his father and mother had high hopes for him,” says Mithilesh, recalling how Soman had worked in the Persian Gulf for 10 years so that Anand could go to school. 

Despite a poor family background, Anand was able to attend a boarding school and study science at Mithila College. Neighbors and friends remember Anand as a diligent student

“His parents had sacrificed a lot to educate him,” says Mithilesh. “One can only imagine what they must be going through after their son’s tragic death.” 

Anand had last talked with his sisters over the phone on Friday. He could not speak with his parents that day. Soman and Shuvakala tried contacting Anand on Saturday, but they could not get hold of him. There was a ringing tone, but no answer. 

Ten Nepalis have died in the attacks of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Israel.

According to Nitin Bhandari, a Nepali student, four persons have been injured and one is still missing.

He said that two others are in safe hands of police.

Bhandari said that all of them are the students of Far-Western University.

The deceased have been identified as Narayan Prasad Neupane and Ashish Chaudhary of Kailali, Ganesh Kumar Nepali of Bajhang, Dipesh Raj Bista and Lokendra Singh Dhami of Darchula, Ananda Sah of Dhanusha, Rajesh Kumar Swarkar of Sunsari, Rajan Phulara and Padam Thapa of Doti and Pravesh Bhandari of Salyan.

Nepali Ambassador to Israel Kanta Rijal confirmed the death of 10 Nepali in the attack.

Pramod KC of Salyan and Birendra Chaudhary of Kailali are in safe hands.

Among the four persons injured in the attack, Dhan Bahadur Chaudhary of Kailali and Himanchal Kattel have sustained injuries in their legs. They are undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

Bipin Joshi of Kanchan has not come in contact with the concerned authority.

In what could caution the country’s policymakers as well as government officials, the country’s foreign education and abroad travel bills have crossed Rs 100bn in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year. While Nepal spends a huge amount of its foreign exchange on import bills yearly, foreign education and abroad travel has emerged as the other major areas where the country’s hard-earned foreign currency is being spent. 

According to the latest macroeconomic report of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Nepalis have spent Rs 119.98bn this fiscal for foreign travel and payment for education abroad.

The amount spent by Nepalis for these two purposes is much higher than the country’s tourism income during the same period. Foreign tourists spent as much as Rs 58.6bn in Nepal in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

The NRB data shows a total of Rs 89.18bn have been sent abroad in the first 11 months of this fiscal to pay the education bills of Nepalis studying in foreign colleges and universities. Nepalis had spent as much as Rs 67.7bn for education abroad in the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2021/22. In FY 2020/21 and FY 2019/20, spending for education decreased to Rs 24.95bn and Rs 25.81bn, according to the NRB.

Likewise, Nepalis are spending heavily on traveling to other countries as tourists. According to NRB data, as much as Rs 30.8bn was spent on foreign travel during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

“Nepalis are spending large amounts of foreign exchanges for travels abroad for different purposes in recent years,” said the NRB official. “As Nepal is an open economy, we cannot control such spending.”

Nepalis spent as much as Rs 97.32bn in the last fiscal year 2021/22 for travels abroad both for visiting foreign destinations and studying abroad which is triple the amount the country earned from foreign travelers. Nepal earned as much as Rs 32.44bn from foreign visitors in the last fiscal year. Nepal’s tourism earnings were battered by travel curbs after the Covid-19 pandemic which has been recovering lately. The country earned only Rs 7.26bn from foreign tourists in the fiscal year 2020/21, according to NRB. But the country’s tourism is reviving which is clearly indicated by the growth in foreign visitors in 2022. 

Rising travel spending