“Martyrs square” in downtown Nablus. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

I have previously mentioned Ghassan Daghlas, the person paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up lies about Jewish settlers.

I counted over 200 times that Daghlas was quoted by the Ma’an news agency alone, without the slightest effort to verify his absurd, and often debunked, claims.

I often commented on Ma’an about how his claims are never accompanied with any actual evidence, no photos or videos corroborating them.

Today, Ma’an wrote about another absurd claim from Daghlas – but with a difference:

NABLUS (Ma’an) — An Israeli settler on Sunday reportedly ran over a Palestinian teen in Yatma village in southern Nablus, a local monitor of settlement activity told Ma’an.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, said that an Israeli settler ran over Muhammad Mustafa Najjar, 19, and then fled the scene. Daghlas added that the teen, who was moderately injured, was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.

For the first time that I’ve ever seen in Ma’an, a claim by Ghassan Daghlas is not accepted as absolute fact, but is now “alleged.”

And as usual, the facts don’t support the allegations. As David Ha’Ivri wrote in the comments:

The report is a bit strange. The main road has not been through Yitma in years. Would be odd to see Jewish drivers driving on the roads in Yitma.

Clearly an Arab ran over the teen and an opportunity was seized to blame the eternal bogeymen, the “settlers.”

We’ll see if this is just an anomaly or if Ma’an is actually ever so slightly raising its journalistic standards.