NEVE YAACOV, Jerusalem The Islamic State shocked the world yet again by using a 12-year-old boy to execute Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab accused of being a spy.
Said Musallam, the victim's father, said his son was no spy, just a misled teenager. He said when he saw his son in an orange jump suit, he knew it was over.
"I already knew from watching television that that's the uniform when they're going to kill somebody," he said.
Muhammad lived in an apartment complex in a mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem. His parents say ISIS lured and deceived their son on the Internet to join their cause.
"They promised him beautiful women, riches, gorgeous villas. They promised him the Garden of Eden, but he said, 'There's nothing here of what they promised. They hardly give us enough money to find food in the village. It was all lies,'" Said recalled.
Muhammad flew to Istanbul, crossed the Turkish border into Syria, and joined ISIS. But after realizing ISIS's promises were just lies, he tried to escape.
His father sent him money to help but then saw the picture of his son in an orange jump suit. The 19-year-old met his doom at the hands of what ISIS calls "a cub of the caliphate."
The youngster shot Muhammad in the head, then three more times while crying "Allah ahkbar." ISIS claimed Muhammad worked for Israel's spy group, the Mossad.
"Muhammad doesn't work for the Mossad," his father denied. "He's just a kid. They made that up because he wanted to come home to his parents."
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon made an unusual public step of denying Muhammad was a spy.
Like many young Arabs, Muhammad got swept up by the Internet propaganda and growing influence of ISIS in places like Gaza and the West Bank.
Now Said Musallam is warning other parents to watch what their sons and daughters are doing.
"My wife and I both say to all the parents to watch their kids computers and their phones and check them all the time. Check who they're talking to and who they're with," Said admonished.
Tragically for Muhammad, his father's warning came too late.
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