Family Denies Palestinian Killed by ISIS Was Spy

posted on: Mar 12, 2015

Mohamed Musallam can be seen in a video released Tuesday on his knees wearing the familiar orange jumpsuit of an Islamic State captive. Before he is shot in the head by a boy, he admits under obvious duress that he was “an agent for the Israeli Mossad.”

His family insists that Mr. Musallam, a 20-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, was no spy, a prospect far more embarrassing for his father and brothers than his appearing to have traveled to Syria to wage jihad with the Islamic State.

“It’s not true, it’s not true, it’s not true at all,” said his elder brother, Ahmed, 29, in an interview Wednesday in the cramped bedroom he shared with his brother and two other siblings.

“To hell with those who say he was a spy!” cried his mother, Hind, who clutched a photograph of her son.

In the 13 ½-minute video released by the Islamic State, Mohamed Musallam said that his father and another brother, Ismail, 27, urged him to assist the Israeli intelligence agency. He said he was sent to Syria to join the Islamic State, locate its bases and weaponry and identify other Palestinians fighting for the group.

Source: www.nytimes.com