Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces spread a false story on Tuesday, claiming to AFP that IDF forces had opened fire on a car driven by Arab residents near the western Samaria town of Tulkarem, killing one. The death turned out to have simply been a traffic accident.

The initial report claimed IDF bullets or a car crash resulting from the “shooting” killed the driver and injured the passenger. It added that the car veered off the road as a result of gunfire.

PA security forces later retracted the story, admitting their information on IDF gunfire was incorrect.

Tulkarem Governor Abdullah Kamil told the Arab Ma’an News Agency that the man who died was Fidaa Muhye Addin Majadlah, and that Ibrahim Adnan Shukri who accompanied him in the car received moderate to serious injuries. Both are residents of Attil, a village in the Tulkarem district of Samaria.

Kamil noted that PA officials contacted Israeli authorities, who reported that the death was a car accident and that the IDF was not involved. He added that Majadlah’s body is in Israeli possession and Shukri is receiving medical treatment.

Governor Kamil just two weeks ago at the funeral of terrorist Sarhan Sarhan praised the terrorist killer as a “brave, heroic fighter.” He spoke as a representative of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Sarhan murdered five Israelis, including a mother and her four- and five-year old children, at Kibbutz Metzer in 2002. The terrorist, a member of the military wing of Abbas’s Fatah party, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, was killed in a shootout with soldiers the following year.