The IDF and Shin Bet said they killed Farah Hamed in Gaza. [1] The Times of Israel filed the confirmation, tying him to Second Intifada shootings and a later Gaza role after a prisoner release. [1] A confirmation is not a second war. Print the agencies' sentence. Do not print a closed front.

Wednesday this paper carried a Hamas claim on a factory stub. Thursday the Israeli agencies named the same man. A named killing is not a cease-fire and not a tunnel demolition. Keep this off Ali al-Taher.

Confirmed remains the agencies' Thursday stamp, not a Hamas communique and not a second front.
Print confirmed as the agencies' word. Leave a named next raid to the edition that owns a named next raid.

Confirmation upgrades a claim into a fact both sides now share. Hamas said it Wednesday; Israel certified it Thursday. The killing itself changes nothing on the ground.

Shared facts settle claims; Thursday's settles one. Settled claims close. The ground stays unchanged.

Unchanged ground stays unchanged; Thursday certifies what Hamas said. Both sides share the name. No next raid here.

Thursday certifies Wednesday's claim. The ground stays unchanged. Leave a named next raid to later pages.

Shin Bet and the IDF named Farah Hamed on Thursday after Wednesday's Hamas stub. Intifada history in the writeup does not open another front. The agencies' stamp does not move the Ali al-Taher fuse. A shared name is not a cease-fire.
Thursday's stamp is a name, not a cease-fire. The ground stays unchanged. Thursday named Farah Hamed after Wednesday's Hamas stub.

Thursday's Farah Hamed stamp is a name, not a cease-fire. The ground stays unchanged. Ali al-Taher's fuse does not move on a shared name.

-- CHARLES ASHFORD, London