With this post, my journey to Cyber Week 2026 at Tel Aviv
University (www.cyberweektau.com) comes full circle. I have already shared the first part of
the trip — the opening lunch with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
guided walk through the Old City of Jerusalem on 8 November, and the AI Week
conference on 9 November — on my blog at baburd.blogspot.com. This final
chapter covers 10 to 12 November: three days that took me from discussions
about AI-versus-AI cyber warfare to the silent memorials of the Gaza border,
and finally to a quiet walk along the Mediterranean.
Day 3 — Tuesday, 10 November: Cyber Week at Tel Aviv University
“One Week, Two Conferences, Infinite Possibilities.” The
banner at the entrance summed it up well. Cyber Week (9–12 November) was
co-located with AI Week (9–11 November), organized by the Blavatnik
Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University together with
the Israel National Cyber Directorate and the Israeli AI National Directorate.
Holding both events side by side was no coincidence: as the world enters the AI
era, securing AI and using AI for security have become a single conversation.

At the Cyber Week entrance (left) and in
front of the Check Point Building on the Tel Aviv University campus (right).
Three themes stayed with me from the
sessions:
· AI
vs AI: the future of
cyber attack and defense will be fought AI versus AI — attackers already
automate reconnaissance, phishing and exploit development, so defenders must
answer with AI-driven detection and response;
· Securing
AI: AI systems themselves
— models, training data and AI agents — are becoming a new attack surface that
needs its own security discipline;
· Towards
the quantum age: with
quantum computing on the horizon, today's encryption must migrate to
post-quantum cryptography before “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks pay off.
Between sessions, the delegation held
lunch on campus, and at 16:00 our government official joined an ambassadors'
event — a reminder that cyber security today is as much about diplomacy and
partnerships between nations as it is about technology.
Day 4 — Wednesday, 11 November: The South
Our day began with the bus left Tel Aviv
for the south of Israel. This was the day I had been waiting for, and in some
ways dreading — because the south is where the events of 7 October 2023
unfolded.
On the road south
Within an hour the landscape opened into
wide, quiet fields and palm groves. We made a brief stop at a roadside junction
to stretch our legs before continuing. It is hard to believe that such peaceful
scenery lies only a few kilometres from the Gaza Strip.

Open fields and palm groves on the way
south, early morning of 11 November.

A short roadside towards the Gaza border communities.
Remembering 7 October 2023
From the past news, I remembered the day
again. On the morning of Saturday, 7 October 2023 — the Jewish holiday of
Simchat Torah — Hamas launched a surprise assault from Gaza. Under cover of
thousands of rockets, armed militants broke through the border fence at dozens
of points and attacked military posts, the towns of Sderot and Ofakim, more
than twenty kibbutzim and the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re'im. Around
1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza, making it the
deadliest day in Israel's history. Kibbutzim such as Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz
and Nahal Oz were devastated, and the attack triggered the war in Gaza that
followed.
For us Nepalis, that day carries a very
personal grief. Seventeen Nepali agriculture students were living and training
at Kibbutz Alumim under Israel's “Learn and Earn” programme. Ten of them were
killed, and Bipin Joshi of Kanchanpur — just weeks after arriving in Israel —
was abducted to Gaza. Survivors later recounted that when grenades were thrown
into the shelter where the students were hiding, Bipin picked one up and threw
it out, an act that likely saved lives. After more than two years of hope and
prayer, his remains were returned in October 2025 under the ceasefire and
hostage-release deal, and he was received in Kathmandu as a national hero.
The kibbutz where it happened
Passing through the yellow security gate
of the kibbutz was an emotional moment. Inside, the orchards and fields look
calm and green again, but every corner carries a story of that morning.
Standing there, I thought of Bipin and his friends, who came here to learn
modern farming so they could return home and help Nepal grow.

Entering the kibbutz through its security
gate (left) and the quiet orchards inside (right).
The Nova festival site
Next we reached the site of the Nova music
festival near Kibbutz Re'im. On 7 October, thousands of young people had
gathered here to dance at sunrise. Within hours, more than 360 of them were
killed and dozens were taken hostage. Today the field is a living memorial:
rows of portraits, each with a name, a short story, red flowers and small
candles. Walking between them, the faces are so young that it feels as if you
are walking among friends.

The Nova memorial: portraits of the
festival-goers killed on 7 October 2023.
What made the visit unforgettable was
hearing the testimony of a Nova survivor of Nepalese origin. Listening to
someone with roots in our own country describe how they ran, hid and survived
that morning brought the tragedy painfully close to home. It is one thing to
read the numbers; it is another to hear a human voice tell you what those hours
felt like.
“The numbers tell you what happened. The
faces tell you who it happened to.”
The burnt cars of Tkuma
Our last stop in the south was the
burnt-car site near Tkuma, where hundreds of vehicles recovered from the roads,
the festival grounds and the border communities have been gathered. Cars
riddled with bullets, melted by fire and crushed beyond recognition stand in
silent rows — some marked with the names of the communities they came from,
such as Kfar Aza. Every vehicle was once someone's ride to work, to a festival,
or an attempt to escape.

Burnt and bullet-riddled vehicles at the Tkuma site,
including cars from Kfar Aza.
Inside Israel's national CERT
The day also carried the professional heart of our tour: a
visit to the CERT — the national cyber operations center — along with its cyber
lab and meetings with Israeli companies, organized by the Israel National Cyber
Directorate. Seeing how a national CERT monitors threats, coordinates incident
response and shares intelligence with critical-infrastructure operators was
directly relevant to our work back home in Nepal. After what we had seen in the
south, the message was clear: physical security and cyber security are two
fronts of the same defense of society.
Day 5 — Thursday, 12 November: Innovation and the Sea
A morning walk by the Mediterranean
Every day in Tel Aviv I tried to walk along the seafront,
and on our last full day the sky over Jaffa was perfectly clear. The deep blue
sea, the palm trees and the old stone arches of Jaffa made it one of the most
memorable mornings of the trip — a moment to breathe and reflect after the
heavy emotions of the previous day.

Along the Jaffa–Tel Aviv promenade on the
morning of 12 November.
The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation
Later that morning we visited the Peres
Center for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa, named after former President and
Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Its Israeli Innovation Center tells the story of
how a small country with few natural resources became the “Start-up Nation” —
from drip irrigation to cyber security, medical devices and artificial
intelligence. Interactive exhibits invite visitors to meet Israeli innovators
and imagine the technologies of tomorrow. It was fitting that a building
dedicated to peace also celebrates innovation; the two, as Peres believed, go
hand in hand.

At the entrance of the Israeli Innovation
Center (left) and exploring its interactive exhibits (right).
The rest of the day was dedicated to
meetings with selected Israeli companies, followed by dinner with a guest
speaker and a lively Tel Aviv nightlife tour — a city that truly never sleeps.
Key Takeaways
· AI
is the new battlefield: the
next generation of cyber conflict will be AI against AI, and nations like Nepal
must build AI-ready security skills now;
· Prepare
for the quantum age: migration
to quantum-safe cryptography should start with planning today, not after
quantum computers arrive;
· National
CERTs matter: a strong
national CERT, close cooperation with industry, academia and international
partnerships are the backbone of national cyber resilience;
· Security
is about people: the
memorials of 7 October remind us that behind every security failure are real
people — including our own Bipin Joshi and the ten Nepali students of Alumim.
Bye Bye, Tel Aviv
On 13 November, after a free morning and a
culinary tour of the Carmel Market, it was time to fly home. I leave Israel
with a notebook full of ideas on AI and cyber security, a heart heavy with the
stories of the south, and deep gratitude to the Israel National Cyber
Directorate, Tel Aviv University and our hosts for an extraordinary week. Toda
raba, Israel — and namaste from Nepal.











