Beirut: The Islamic State released a video on Wednesday purporting to show a young boy executing an Arab Israeli who it claimed infiltrated the group in Syria to spy for the Jewish state. In the video, a youth identifying himself as 19-year-old Mohammed Said Ismail Musallam recounts how he was recruited by Israeli intelligence.

Dressed in an orange jumpsuit that is standard in videos of IS executions, he is shown kneeling in front of the boy, who appears to be no more than 12 years old, and a man standing at his side. 

Dabiq, the IS online English-language magazine, said Mohammed had been tasked by Israel with gathering information on IS bases and weapons and on Palestinians volunteering to fight for the group in Syria.

A spokesman for Israel's Shin Bet security service said that Mohammed had left home on October 24 "on his own initiative", implying that he had not been sent by Israel. Official Israeli policy is not to comment on such allegations.