60,000 Israelis Download App To Notify of Abduction
Image by Haaretz
Some 60,000 Israelis have downloaded a free app designed to assist in the event of an abduction.
Using the free United Hatzalah SOS smartphone app, subscribers can inform the emergency organization that they need assistance and provide their exact location via GPS technology. The app, developed by the Israeli start-up NowForce, requires one swipe of the finger.
The system contacts any family or friends that are programmed into the system during registration.
The app responds to problems that arise from placing an emergency call to the police in the event of a kidnapping situation. Security forces have to undergo lengthy legal processes to obtain permission to track an individual’s cell phone signal, prolonging emergency response times and the chance of rescue.
Police received a distress call from one of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers minutes after they were taken, but security forces were unable to ascertain their exact location. They then waited nearly seven hours before responding to the teens’ call for help, believing it was a prank.
Israeli media have reported that the teens were shot by their abductors in panic after they realized a call had been placed to police. The app allows for a discreet method to call for help, its creators say.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
