In a modest family home in the Arab neighbourhood of Shuafat I’m shown the bedroom of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

It has become something of a shrine.

Mohammed’s various possessions - his mobile phone charger and text books - lie where he left them. It is as if he will soon be back.

Wiping tears from her eyes, his mother, Suha, vows that this is how she wants things to stay.

SUHA ABU KHDEIR: I will never take his stuff out. My son is inside my heart and will never leave. His brother, Saif, doesn’t even want to sleep in his brother’s bed. He doesn’t want to and I will keep it here forever.

The Abu Khdeirs’ family home is at a busy crossroads that hums with traffic and the sound of passers-by for much of the day.

But early on 2 July it was a much quieter scene as Mohammed waited on the corner for some friends.

They were to go together to dawn prayers at the local mosque, little more than 50m (165ft) away.

But before they arrived a car pulled up alongside the solitary boy. CCTV footage from a building across the street shows what happened next.

A light-coloured car drives past the place where Mohammed was sitting, outside his father’s electrical shop.

It stops briefly before reversing back up the street and disappearing out of frame.

Then two young men, both with short dark hair, approach the spot on foot and appear to start a conversation with somebody just out of shot, probably Mohammed.

One of them jabs his arm angrily at the person he is speaking to. The car stops in front of the men.

A few moments later there’s a struggle. Everyone involved gets into the car quickly and it speeds off through a set of traffic lights.

His mother tells me that the first she knew something was wrong was when Mohammed’s cousin, who had agreed to meet him, knocked on the door and asked her where he was.

After failing several times to reach her son on the phone, Suha called the police.

Another boy who had arranged to go to the mosque that morning with Mohammed was his teenage friend, Hakim.

He tells me why it was that he and others weren’t there as planned.

HAKIM: There was an attempt nearby the day before Mohammed was abducted to kidnap a mother and her child so my father stopped me from going out that morning. Around six of us were supposed to join him. It was Mohammed’s bad luck that nobody showed up. Some people live far away and may not have heard the call to prayer. Others probably overslept and some may have heard of the kidnapping I mentioned and were afraid to come to the mosque.

It seems the men who abducted Mohammed were looking for a Palestinian youth who they could snatch quickly with little resistance.

His father Hussein says that Mohammed - small, lightly-built and alone - would have fitted the bill.

HUSSEIN ABU KHDEIR: The killer-Nazi settlers saw him by himself. They parked the car on the side and asked him something about directions to Tel Aviv. Surveillance video shows that they were talking to him. So they made sure that they could handle him because he was a thin boy and not strong. Two of them attacked him, put their hands around his mouth as he started screaming. The car was parked on the side and they put him in the car by force.

His mother shows me photographs of her son. He has a sensitive yet vibrant face that looks closer to 12 years old than 16.

He had five brothers and sisters but there is no doubting the unique place he had in her heart.

SUHA ABU KHDEIR: Since he was young, he was special for me. He was so likeable. As he grew up, he started getting closer to me. In the house, we weren’t like a mother and a son, we were like friends. He was the closest one to me. Right up until the time he became a martyr, he would sit on my lap. I felt that he never grew up. For me he was still a baby.

HUSSEIN ABU KHDEIR: Mohammed was born here in Shuafat. He had a very strong personality. He was loved by everyone. He was very popular at his school and was one of the top students there. He used to take part in lots of social events here. He had a very strong personality. In that he was different from all of his brothers and sisters.

Suha told me how Mohammed would often burst into song as he came through the door from school.

She says he would sing and whistle happy tunes when walking around the house or coming down the stairs.

But his sense of humour, it seems, was his biggest gift to the family.

SUHA ABU KHDEIR: One day, he called me and ask me what we’re having for lunch. When I told him he said, wait until I count all the people with me on the bus. I’ll bring them all, and the driver! He just likes to joke with me so much.

Hussein sighs and runs his fingers through his beard.

HUSSEIN ABU KHDEIR: It was 4.10am when we called the police. This was about five minutes after he had been kidnapped. We gave them Mohammed’s phone number. But instead of tracking him, they started interrogating us about his friends, whether we have any enemies and what Mohammed was wearing. Silly questions just like those. It proves that they were covering up on the issue, they weren't interested in tracking him and following his abductors.