Bipin Joshi threw back a grenade from Hamas attackers before being taken hostage in the assault on Israel two years ago, says the fellow Nepalese student he saved.
"I may not have survived if both grenades had exploded. Bipin showed courage and threw the grenade out," Dhan Bahadur Chaudhary told BBC Nepali.
He was speaking after the Israeli military identified his friend's body as being among four dead hostages returned by Hamas under the Gaza ceasefire accord.
Bipin was 23 and working on a kibbutz when he was taken by Hamas into captivity along with 250 others on 7 October 2023. It's unclear how or when he died.
His family and friends hoped right up to the release deadline that he might be among living hostages returned on 13 October, but he wasn't, and a day later their worst fears were confirmed.
