The Islamic State Group – ISIL – released a video on Tuesday that reportedly shows the execution of a Palestinian accused of being an Israeli spy.
The video released by ISIL is 13 minutes long, and features the following: An ISIL militant and a boy dressed in camouflage clothing stand stoically behind a man in an orange – prison-style – jumpsuit who is kneeling on the ground. The militant standing behind the kneeling man speaks in French. He accuses the kneeling man of working for the Mossad – the Israeli equivalent of the CIA or MI6. When the militant is finished, the boy behind the kneeling man, who up to now has been silent, steps up unceremoniously and shoots the man in the orange jumpsuit in the back of the head, killing him.
The man in the orange jumpsuit, the man killed by a mere boy from ISIL, is reportedly Mohamed Said Ismail Musalam.
Thus far, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has made no comment concerning the video. In the past, Israel has denied Ismail Musalam was actually an operative for the Mossad as ISIL claims. However, earlier this year, Israel’s Shin Bet – Israel’s internal security agency – announced that Ismail Musalam had left Israel for Turkey to fight alongside ISIL. Furthermore, last month according to the Jerusalem Post , ISIL put out what it says is an interview with Ismail Musalam in its online magazine, and the pictures posted in the interview do resemble the man in the orange jumpsuit killed in the video.
Ismail Musalam’s father told the Associated Press that he has not seen the video purportedly showing his son’s execution . Ismail Musalam’s father did say that his son, (who is 19) left for Syria four months ago. The son initially left without telling his family he was leaving, however, he eventually contacted his brother in Israel and told him he was fighting for ISIL.
At some point, however, Ismail Musalam had a change of heart. He reached out to his father and family online from Raqqa in Northern Syria and told them he wanted to come back home.
His father commented on the young man’s appearance.
“I saw him with a long beard and long hair and a Kalashnikov. He told me, ‘Look dad, I am fed up here, it is a country of war, and I want to come back.’”
In January, Ismail Musalam’s family received a strange call from an unidentified individual. The cryptic caller told them that Ismail Musalam had tried to run from ISIL. However, the 19 year-old didn’t make it. The caller told the family that Ismail Musalam had gotten caught at a checkpoint on the Turkish border and was currently being held in an ISIL prison in Syria.
The young man’s father, however, insists that his son was not an Israeli spy.
“They did not want to let him leave because if he comes back, he might be caught by the Israelis and tell them what he had seen. So they wanted to get rid of him. I know my son. I raised him well. I am sure he’s not working for the Mossad.”
After all is said and done, it appears that Ismail Musalam was a young man drawn to the cause and possibly adventure of working with the Islamic State in Syria. What the 19 year-old found was a war ravaged country that didn’t align with his ideals. When he tried to go home to his parents, he found his death in the barrel of a gun held by a child.
[Image via The Gateway Pundit ]