Deeply traumatized, but also relieved, Nepalese survivors of the Hamas attack on Israel were today welcomed by their loved ones on their return home on the first special flight from Israel.

A plane carrying 254 Nepalese from Israel landed shortly before dawn today in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, nearly a week after Hamas gunmen attacked Israel in which more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed.

All the Nepalese who returned today from Israel were students of the Departments of Forestry and Agricultural Studies in Israel under a scholarship program.

Sobha Paswan, 25, who worked at a nursery, had just woken up on Saturday to do yoga when she saw “many, many rockets” launch and explode in the sky.

“We lost our Nepali friends”

“It’s a mental trauma for your whole life because we lost our Nepalese friends,” Paswan says, adding that she has no plans to return to Israel.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister NP Saud said the bodies of ten Nepalis killed in the Hamas attack will be repatriated after the Israeli government completes the formalities and hands them over to the Nepalese authorities.

About 4,500 Nepalis work in Israel.

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“We stayed for three days in a shelter”

Paswan described staying for three days with friends in a shelter while the fighting continued.

On his part, Dan Bahadur Chodhari, who was injured in a grenade attack inside his bunker, saw two of his colleagues fall dead from bullets, while others were maimed.

“Some of my friends died from uncontrollable bleeding,” says the 26-year-old, who was rescued nine hours after the attack.

“I can’t sleep at night…I see blood everywhere…I see rivers of blood,” says Chodhari who left the airport in a wheelchair.

Authorities have announced that three Nepalis are still being treated in Israel with serious injuries, while one is still missing.