An emergency personnel works to extinguish the fire after rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel October 7, 2023.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Some of the students from Nepal who are stranded in a bunker in Israel after Hamas militants from Gaza launched a wave of rocket attacks in the country's southern region have sent a video message asking the Nepalese government to take immediate steps to evacuate them.
“We are not safe in this bunker because earlier, our friends were brutally killed by the Hamas people entering into the bunker and we don’t want to have the same fate,” the students said in the video message, reported setopati.com, an online news portal.
Some of the Nepalese were among the 265 students who went to Israel under its 'Learn and Earn' study programme, according to Foreign Ministry sources.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a barrage of air strikes in Southern Israel on Saturday, killing at least 700 people and wounding more than 2,1,00.
Earlier, 17 Nepali students from the Sudur Paschim University who were working on a farm at Kibbutz Alumim, an area near the Gaza Strip, were caught in the attack by Hamas.
Of them, 10 students were killed while four others were injured and are currently undergoing treatment.
Two of the students were rescued and one is still reportedly missing.
A total of 265 students went to Israel to participate in the 11-month ‘Learn and Earn’ programme, of which, 119 are from Agriculture and Forestry University, 97 from Tribhuvan University and 49 from Sudur Paschim University, the sources said.
All of them are bachelor-level students of agriculture.
Meanwhile, hundreds of students have taken out a silent procession carrying placards in Tikapur Municipality of Western Nepal demanding immediate action on the part of the government to rescue the Nepalese students from the war-torn region of Israel, according to government-run Gorkhapatra daily.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has summoned a special meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday to discuss the latest situation in Israel and the condition of the Nepali community there, according to officials.
Nepal's main opposition CPN-UML has also asked Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to talk to his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to rescue the Nepalis, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported.