The families of the hostages and murdered have noticed in the past day that their relatives, who were kidnapped to Gaza or were murdered, have left their WhatsApp groups.
This is WhatsApp's security policy, so that after four months - 120 days of inactivity, the account is disconnected and removed from all groups.
The company's website states that "WhatsApp accounts are usually deleted after 120 days of inactivity to maintain security, limit data retention, and protect user privacy. Inactivity means the user has not logged into WhatsApp."
Gil Dikman, a cousin of Carmel Gat who was kidnapped to Gaza, explained that "there is an automatic feature of WhatsApp, which deletes your account if you have not been active for four months. This happened yesterday simultaneously to almost all the hostages and the murdered."
He added, "After four months in captivity, suddenly they “left the group”. They will return. They must return."