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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. 

Without warning on Saturday, Gaza’'s militant Hamas rulers attacked Israel by air, land and sea. Millions of Israelis in the country’s south awoke to the searing sound of incoming rockets and the inevitable thud of impact. Air raid sirens wailed as far north as Tel Aviv. Israel’s anti-rocket interceptors thundered in Jerusalem.

And in an unprecedented escalation, armed Hamas fighters blew up parts of Israel’s highly fortified separation fence and strode into Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier, terrorizing residents and trading fire with Israeli soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies were scrambling to respond to the rapidly changing events. Within just nine hours, some 40 Israelis and nearly 200 Palestinians were confirmed dead, with the numbers expected to rise.

Here are some key takeaways from the multi-pronged attack that has suddenly plunged Israel into war.

Israel caught unaware

The shock that Israelis felt on Saturday morning—on Simchat Torah, one of the most joyous days of the Jewish calendar—recalled the surprise of the 1973 Mideast war. Practically 50 years earlier to the day, a full-scale Egyptian-Syrian attack on a Jewish holiday quickly turned into a disaster for an unprepared Israeli military.

Then, as now, Israelis had assumed that their intelligence services would be able to alert the army to any major attack or invasion well in advance. That colossal failure still haunts the legacy of then-Prime Minister Golda Meir and helped bring down the lengthy rule of the once-dominant Labor Party.

Now, the question of how the militants were able to stage such a huge and coordinated attack—which has already killed more Israelis than any single assault since the second Palestinian uprising two decades ago—without triggering Israeli intelligence concerns has already presented a major challenge to Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government.

The government’s supporters had expected Netanyahu and powerful hard-line ministers with a history of anti-Arab rhetoric like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to take a particularly belligerent stance against the Palestinians and respond more forcefully to threats from militants in Gaza.

As political analysts lambast Netanyahu over the failure, and the casualty count climbs, Netanyahu risks losing control of both his government and the country.

Unprecedented infiltration

Hamas claimed its fighters had taken several Israelis captive in the enclave, releasing gruesome videos of militants dragging bloodied soldiers across the ground and standing over dead bodies, some of them stripped to their underwear. It said that senior Israeli military officers were among the captives.

The videos could not immediately be verified but matched geographic features of the area. Fears that Israelis had been kidnapped evoked the 2006 capture of soldier Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas-linked militants seized in a cross-border raid. Hamas held Shalit for five years until he was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

In a dramatic escalation unseen in decades, Hamas also sent paragliders flying into Israel, the Israeli military said. The brazen attack recalled a famous assault in the late 1980s when Palestinian militants crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel on hang-gliders and killed six Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli army belatedly confirmed that soldiers and civilians had been taken hostage in Gaza, but refused to provide further details.

A dangerous gamble by Hamas

Hamas officials cited long-simmering sources of tension between Israel and the Palestinians, including the dispute around the sensitive Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews and remains at the emotional heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Competing claims over the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, have spilled into violence before, including a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in 2021.

In recent years, Israeli religious nationalists—such as National Security Minister Ben-Gvir—have increased their visits to the compound. Last week, during the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli activists visited the site, prompting condemnation from Hamas and accusations that Jews were praying there in violation of the status quo agreement.

Hamas statements have also cited the expansion of Jewish settlements on lands that the Palestinians claim for a future state and Ben-Gvir’s efforts to toughen restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

More recently, tensions have escalated with violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza frontier. In negotiations with Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations, Hamas has pushed for Israeli concessions that could loosen the 17-year blockade on the enclave and help halt a worsening financial crisis that has sharpened public criticism of its rule.

Some political analysts have linked Hamas’ attack to ongoing US-brokered talks on normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. So far, reports of possible concessions to Palestinians in the negotiations have involved Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, not Gaza.

“We have always said that normalization will not achieve security, stability, or calm,” Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told the AP.

Israel in crisis

The eruption of violence comes at a difficult time for Israel, which is facing the biggest protests in its history over Netanyahu’s proposal to weaken the Supreme Court while he is on trial for corruption.

The protest movement, which accuses Netanyahu of making a power grab, has bitterly divided Israeli society and unleashed turmoil within the Israeli military. Hundreds of reservists have threatened to stop volunteering to report for duty in protest at the judicial overhaul.

Reservists are the backbone of the country’s army, and protests within the army ranks have raised concerns about the military’s cohesion, operational readiness and power of deterrence as it confronts threats on multiple fronts. Netanyahu on Saturday called up “an extensive mobilization of reserve forces.”

A perilous cycle

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and exchanged fire numerous times since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Cease-fires have stopped major fighting in past rounds of conflict but have always proven shaky.

Each agreement in the past has offered a period of calm, but the deeper, underlying issues of the conflict are rarely addressed and set the stage for the next round of airstrikes and rockets.

With its increased leverage in this round, Hamas is likely to push harder for concessions on key issues, such as easing the blockade and winning the release of prisoners held by Israel.

AP

The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip have launched an unprecedented, multifront attack on Israel, firing thousands of rockets. Dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border at several locations, catching the country off-guard during a major holiday. Israel has reported at least 40 casualties while other international media say the death toll has reached 100.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was ‘at war’ and called for a mass mobilization of army reserves.

The Nepali government has strongly condemned the ‘terrorist attack’ in Israel that left nine Nepalis injured. “At this critical hour, we express our solidarity with the Government of Israel,” stated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Nepali government extended heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies to the people and Government of Israel, as well as to the victims of this cruel attack and their families. “We wish for a speedy recovery of the injured,” added the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Nepali government received information that a farm where 14 Nepalis were working came under attack. Nine Nepalis have been reported injured, with two of them in serious condition.

The Embassy of Nepal in Israel is in close communication with the Nepalis living in the affected areas. The Embassy is also in contact and coordination with Israeli authorities to ensure the safety, security, and rescue of the Nepalis, as well as providing medical treatment for the injured, officials say.

Given the situation, Nepali nationals in Israel are urged to remain cautious and follow the safety measures advised by the authorities, the Ministry stated.

American President Joe Biden has strongly condemned the “appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza” and mentioned that he has spoken with Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu.

In a statement released by the White House, Biden conveyed to the Israeli leader that “we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Israeli government and the Israeli people”. Biden also emphasized that the Jewish state “has a right to defend itself and its people”. He warned against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation.

The president underscored that his administration’s support for Israel’s security is “rock solid and unwavering”.

Various other Western leaders also condemned the Hamas attack and expressed their support for Israel.

Contact

Nepal Embassy in Israel: +972(0)35168085

Amb Kanta Rizal: +972545864423

1st Secy Arjun Ghimire: +972528289300

Email: [email protected]

The world around Nepal has been turning at a dizzying pace even as we remain in turmoil as ever. Gone is the unipolar world that was under the command of the sole superpower after the fragmentation of the Soviet Union in the early 90’s. 

Looking back, Nepal has always sought to reach out to a wider world. It established its first diplomatic relations (with the United Kingdom) in 1816 and now has formal ties with around 180 countries. It joined the United Nations on 14 Dec 1955 and has also been part of the Non-Aligned Movement founded in 1961. 

It is a founding member of the grouping called South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) that dates back to 8 Dec 1985 with its secretariat set up in Kathmandu on 17 Jan 1987. 

In February 2004, Nepal became a member of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation that was established on 6 June 1997.

Nepal, though, took quite a long time in joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) established on 15 June 2001, becoming a dialogue partner seven years ago—only on 22 March 2016. 

Had our political leadership been thinking long and hard about such associations and what they bring to the table? Well, anything is possible. 

Fast forward. 

In our neighborhood, China is emerging as the second largest economy with a nominal GDP of $19, 423.48bn and as the second most powerful country in the world, militarily. India is not lagging far behind, with a PPP GDP of $3,591.03 and as the fourth strongest military force in the world. Beyond the neighborhood, Russia is again emerging as a formidable power, along with a number of other countries like Indonesia, South Korea, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey.     

India recently hosted the G20 summit that saw the 24-year-old 20-member grouping welcome one more member to its fold—African Union, to be formally inducted later—in the presence of one more country from our extended neighborhood, Bangladesh (a robust economy in its own right), which was invited as a guest, along with Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the UAE.

Climate change was one of the agendas of the summit and Nepal happens to be one of the countries suffering the most from the impact of this largely manmade disaster but seems to have lost its voice in the international arena. 

After the summit, a number of questions have arisen. They are: What does the apparent snubbing of Nepal at the summit that took place in a country with which we have cordial relations mean? Does it mean Nepal’s concerns, including those related to climate change, can easily be brushed under the carpet? What does it mean for Nepal’s standing in the comity of nations? 

There’s no doubt that the summit would have given Nepal, a member of the Global South, a golden opportunity to share its worries with the world and make big polluters accountable for a huge GHG emission that has wreaked havoc around the world, in the form of ozone depletion, rising temperatures, glacial retreat on the Himalayas, flash floods in the plains and a steady rise in sea levels.  

The summit was a huge miss for Nepal, given that the 19 G20 countries account for 85 percent of global gross domestic product, over 75 per cent of global trade and two-thirds of the globe’s entire population—not to mention a huge GHG footprint, the main culprit behind climate phenomena like glacial retreat, glacial lake outburst floods and rising temperatures.  

For now, let’s leave G20 aside and move on. 

BRICS, thus far a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and an economic mammoth in its own right, has also been hogging the limelight of late. The 15-year five-nation club, comprising 40 per cent of the world’s population and more than 25 percent of global GDP, has been positioning itself as an economic counterweight to the West. What’s more, the non-military bloc is growing bigger with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates set to join it at the start of 2024.    

This, even as Nepal finds itself in ever-deepening crises on socio-economic, socio-religious and socio-political fronts, not entirely of its own making. Perhaps a desolate SAARC secretariat located in the heart of Kathmandu, a silent spectator to a long-running enmity between South Asia’s two giants that has been holding the bloc hostage for far too long, best explains Nepal’s dilemmas.  

Against this backdrop, ApEx asked a number of experts whether Nepal should strive to join emerging blocs like BRICS to make its voices heard and its presence felt in international fora. Here’s what they had to say.  

Professor Katak Malla, Expert on International Law

BRICS is a huge commodity market that seeks to curtail Euro-dollar domination. Nepal should not join any of the military blocs, it should remain non-aligned but it should of course join blocs like BRICS. If we become a BRICS member, we can use Chinese and other currencies for trade and commerce instead of having to rely on the Euro and dollar, and we can make our voice count using this forum. SAARC, of which Nepal is a founding member, has remained moribund because of enmity between Pakistan and India, and there are calls for reforms in the United Nations—amid the rise in the fortunes of several countries—to make the world body more representative.  

Political instability and the rule of law are lacking in the country. First and foremost, Nepal’s leaders and the public should mend ways to arrest this slide. The government should come up with a relevant domestic policy before joining any bloc.  

Pradip Gyawali, Former Foreign Minister and UML Leader

We are a small economy and as things stand now, we seem to be in no position to benefit from blocs like BRICS. Even if we strive to join the bloc, it’s unclear how BRICS members will respond.  

Many countries are seeking an alternative to the US-led global economy, they are rooting for de-dollarization. BRICS does not seem to be a strategic bloc, it appears to be a trade and cooperation forum, which is good for us. Overall, Nepal should look upon initiatives like BRICS positively. As for the CPN-UML, it favors multilateralism. In the long run, I think, it is in our interest to join blocs like BRICS as dependence on the dollar will decrease with increase in the use of local currencies.  

Khadga KC, Professor, Department of International Relations and Diplomacy, TU 

Being a relatively small state, Nepal always needs to prioritize multilateralism. Engaging more with regional and multilateral frameworks could be beneficial, however, we are not benefiting much from our association with WTO and BIMSTEC. So, I don’t think we need to rush in to socialize with the emerging economies. 

Rajan Bhattarai, Chief, CPN-UML’s Foreign Affairs Department

Nepal should step up efforts to join any sub-regional, regional and international organization whose objectives are compatible with her foreign policy objectives and priorities. 

With Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the UAE set to become its new members on Jan 1 next year, BRICS (comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa at present) is one such organization that our country should make efforts to be a part of. The bloc aims to promote international peace, stability, cooperation and investment and these objectives are similar to Nepal’s foreign policy objectives. 

So, our country should make attempts to be a member of this grouping. If our party—the CPN-UML—comes to power, we will intensify our engagements to join sub-regional, regional and international organizations whose vision, missions and objectives are in sync with our foreign policy objectives and priorities. Of course, BRICS is one of the organizations that we will strive to join. 

Sagun Sunder Lawoti, Spokesperson, RPP

King Prithvi Narayan Shah fittingly called Nepal a yam between two boulders. Our two neighbors are rising, signifying the transformation of a unipolar world order into a multipolar order, even as we find ourselves in a deep crisis.  In terms of size, our two neighbors are far bigger than us. At the same time, more than half of the countries around the world are smaller than us—in terms of population and geographical area.  As such, size is a relative term.  We as a nation need to work out ways to deal with a changing world that is offering both challenges and opportunities. What should our policy vis-a-vis blocs like BRICS and G20 be? What does the rise of neighbors mean for us? What challenges does it pose and what opportunities does it offer? Nepal has immense geostrategic advantage and opportunities. But then our leaders are focusing on petty interests rather than long-term national benefits.

Surya Raj Acharya, Political Analyst

BRICS is a grouping of emerging economies, of countries transitioning from developing to developed economies. It is basically a non-strategic and non-military bloc focused on trade and commerce. 

Bangladesh recently tried to join the grouping, but failed. It was but natural for that country to seek BRICS membership because it has a robust economy. Another case is the UAE, which will be formally inducted into BRICS soon. The UAE has made huge strides on the economic front over the decades and it deserves to be in the bloc. 

Given the size of their economy, countries like Thailand, the Philippines and Bangladesh fit the bill. 

As a country of geostrategic significance, Nepal should strive for BRICS membership in the long run. Nepal’s geopolitical location gives it an edge and the size of the country is no bar, though the size of the economy matters. 

Having said this, the present scenario is not rosy. The economy is not doing well. Besides, there’s no clear roadmap on how to deal with China, India, the United States and the European Union. The country seems to have no coherent foreign policy, thanks to the absence of well-defined domestic policies of which foreign policy is an extension. Petty interests of political parties have taken precedence. The rulers don’t even know what our national priorities are. Nepal’s international standing has taken a beating. 

We must first agree on our national interests and national priorities and this should be reflected in our domestic policies. Our national interest, not petty interests of political parties, should guide our foreign policy. 

In the long run, we should strive to join blocs like BRICS because they enable us to raise our profile, bring in foreign direct investment and benefit from technology transfer as well as trade and commerce partnerships.   

Dhawal Shumshere Rana, Leader, RPP 

There’s a huge gap between BRICS member-states and Nepal. They are emerging powers and they won’t induct us into the grouping given this gap. At present, it’s futile for Nepal to even think about it.    

The group of G20 

Argentina

Australia

Brazil

Canada

China

France

Germany

India

Indonesia

Italy

Japan

South Korea

Mexico

Russia

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Turkiye

The United Kingdom

The United States

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

Member-states

China

India

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Russia

Pakistan

Tajikistan

Uzbekistan

Dialogue partners

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Cambodia

Nepal

Sri Lanka

Turkey

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

Bhutan

India

Maldives

Nepal

Pakistan

Sri Lanka 

Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)

Bangladesh

India

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Myanmar

Bhutan

Nepal