It apparently requires an in-depth news analysis to understand why an army wouldn't announce what it was doing, or planning on doing.
But this wasn't the only piece of stupidity in the New York Times recently. Also yesterday, for example, reporters were not certain about something:
And here, in an otherwise decent piece about Hamas hoarding, we see this:
There is a theme here: Israel is expected to act in ways that go beyond what any other country ever would do; when it doesn't reach those artificial expectations it is big news. Palestinians aren't expected to adhere to even the minimum standards of decency and are given the benefit of the doubt no matter what.