The new Gaza operation seemed to come as a surprise across the world, but was it? Already multiple top Israeli sources have confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that the timing of the operation was coordinated with the US.
However, defense sources have declined to confirm or deny whether the timing was planned to coincide with or fall after the American air strikes on the Houthis.
The benefits of such coordinated timing are obvious. The Houthis, with their ballistic missiles, are the last Iranian proxy that could most viably threaten Israel immediately in retaliation for a return to war such as seems to be happening.
Hamas has not managed to fire a single rocket since the operation started at 2:00 p.m., and Hezbollah is silent after the beating it received this past fall.
Syria’s Assad regime no longer exists, so Iranian militias either cannot attack Israel from Syrian territory or it will be much harder now – also because of Israel’s buffer zone.
But the Houthis, until recent days, had still gotten off with a relatively light price from Israel and the US for their over 400 attacks on Israel over the course of the war.
Israel had struck the Houthis five times and the US many more. But all of these attacks had been with heavy restraints, and none had targeted top Houthi officials, which the US said it has done successfully this week.
Houthis renew strikes, or have they?
So far, the Houthis claimed to launch a series of attacks against US naval vessels in the region, but the Pentagon has said that it blocked these attacks, or at least has not confirmed any casualties.If Israel could see that the Houthis had their hands full managing being attacked by the American military, it would turn the fight between Israel and Hamas into a two-party battle for the first time since the war started.This is the kind of battle that Israel would prefer, managing one front against the weakest link in Iran’s proxy axis.And it would make sense for Israeli officials to downplay how coordinated they were with the US, while US officials have been louder about it to The Wall Street Journal.Politically and militarily, Israel wants to appear as independent and strong as possible. At the end of the day, Israel will always take military action on its borders if it feels national security demands such action.The next question is whether Israel is partially holding back a ground invasion to continue to keep an eye on any Houthi response or if the delayed ground invasion is to give Hamas a chance to agree to Israel’s hostage negotiations offer – or if it is just a tactical rolling development to send soldiers in after the air force paves the way.