A photo of a list of 17 Nepali nationals who were either killed or injured in Kibbutz Alumim, an area near the Gaza Strip during the recent Hamas attack is being shared with a false claim that they are names of Indian citizens kidnapped by the Islamic militant group.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a large-scale assault on Israeli forces as a part of their 'Al-Aqsa Storm' operation. Hamas had breached a fortified border fence, killing and capturing both Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Islamic militant group had also take several hostages including foreign nationals after the attack.
A photo that has a list with 17 names and their address's was posted on X (Formerly known as Twitter) by the handle Sushil Dwivedi (@sushildwivediSK) with the caption, "As per sources 17 Indians have been kidnapped by HAMAS on Saturday in Israel.Out of this 10 are killed OR executed. No one from I.N.D.I.A. alliance has guts to give a statement on these kidnapped Indians.They support students of AMU who came out in support of HAMAS with a March."
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The photo of the list is being shared widely on X with the same false claim.
The same photo was also shared on Facebook with the caption, "As per sources 17 Indians have been kidnapped by HAMAS on Saturday in Israel , Out of 17 10 r killed r executed . No one from I.N.D.I.A. alliance has the guts to give a statement on these kidnapped Indians. But they support students of Aligarh Muslim University, who came out in support of HAMAS with a March."
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the list of 17 names mentioned in the viral photo are of Nepali nationals and not Indian citizens as being claimed on social media.
We ran a keyword search with the names mentioned on the list and found several news reports including from Nepali outlets that had reported the same names stating that 17 Nepali nationals who were either killed or injured during the Hamas attack.
The Kathmandu Post reported on October 17, 2023, that Israel had confirmed the identity of Nepali students that had been killed during the attack. The Kathmandu Post reported that at least 10 Nepali students were killed when Hamas militants entered into Israel and fired rounds of rockets and grenades at their residence. The report further added that four other Nepalis were injured in the attacks and one Nepali student, Bipin Joshi, from Kanchanpur, is still missing.
The names mentioned in the article match with the names in the viral photo.
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We also found an official press release dated October 15, 2023, by the Nepal's embassy in Israel confirms the name of five deceased students whose names match with the names in the viral photo.
Additionally, the addresses for the citizens mentioned in the viral photo are all based in Nepal. We also reached out Nepal Fact Check who confirmed that the 17 locations mentioned in the list are all in Nepal.
India's Ministry of External Affairs has also stated as on October 12, 2023, that there was no information regarding Indian causalities in Israel during the recent Hamas attack. PTI reported on October 15, 2023, citing official sources that at least two Israeli women security officers of Indian origin were killed during the attack.
We did not find any credible news reports reporting on any list of Indians kidnapped by Hamas at the time of writing this article.
