Why won't Israel take a more aggressive measure against the Houthis in Yemen?

Question

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthi_involvement_in_the_2023_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war

On 19 October 2023, the U.S. Navy warship USS Carney shot down three land-attack cruise missiles and several drones heading toward Israel launched by the Houthis in Yemen. This was the first action by the U.S. military to defend Israel since the outbreak of the war.[4] It was later reported that the ship shot down four cruise missiles and 15 drones.[8] Another missile was reportedly intercepted by Saudi Arabia.[9]

On 27 October 2023, two drones were fired in a northerly direction from the southern Red Sea. According to IDF officials, their target was Israel, but they did not cross the border from Egypt. Of the two drones, one fell short and hit a building adjacent to a hospital in Taba, Egypt, injuring six; the other was shot down near an electricity plant close to the town of Nuweiba, Egypt.[10][11][12] A Houthi official later made a one-word post on Twitter after the drone crashed in Taba, mentioning the nearby Israeli town of "Eilat".[13]

On 31 October, an alert was triggered in Eilat, Eilot and the Shahorit industrial park area regarding the penetration of hostile aircraft from the Red Sea. The aircraft was successfully intercepted over the Red Sea. The Arrow system intercepted a ballistic missile and the Air Force intercepted several cruise missiles fired from the Red Sea towards Eilat. The Houthis took responsibility for the launches.[14] One cruise missile was shot down by an F-35i Adir jet.[15] The downing of the missile by the Arrow marks the first time it has been used in the Israel–Hamas war.[16]

On 1 November at 0:45, the IDF intercepted an air threat fired from Yemen and identified south of Eilat.[17]

A U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down off the coast of Yemen by Houthi air defences on 8 November; the Pentagon previously claimed MQ-9 drones were flying over Gaza in an intelligence gathering role to aid in the hostage recovery efforts.[18]

On 9 November, the Houthis fired a missile towards the city of Eilat.[19] The missile was intercepted by an "Arrow 3" missile, marking the first time it was used in an interception.[20]

On 14 November, the Houthis fired numerous missiles, one of which was aimed towards the city of Eilat. The missile was intercepted by an Arrow missile.[21]

The following day, the USS Thomas Hudner shot down a drone that was headed towards it.[22]

Why won't Israel take a more aggressive measure against the Houthis in Yemen? It seems that Israel is just shooting down missiles and drones while not attacking the Houthis in Yemen. Is there a reason for this? I am thinking that attacking terrorists in Yemen would constitute perhaps a war against Yemen itself even if the government of Yemen is against the Houthis. Did Israel give an official reason for not attacking the Houthis for their involvement in the Israel-Hamas war?

Answer 1

Why won't Israel take a more aggressive measure against the Houthis in Yemen? It seems that Israel is just shooting down missiles and drones while not attacking the Houthis in Yemen. Is there a reason for this? I am thinking that attacking terrorists in Yemen would constitute perhaps a war against Yemen itself even if the government of Yemen is against the Houthis. Did Israel give an official reason for not attacking the Houthis for their involvement in the Israel-Hamas war?

Israel looks at a war with Hamas as a war it can easily win, and also hopefully establish some sort of long term solution to a constant existential problem. This holds true as long as Israel is at war with only Hamas. A general war, involving Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran, becomes a pain for them to deal with, and instead of an easy win with a potential for a long term solution, there's a chance Israel loses outright.

In addition, even a limited strike back will result in civilian casualties, violate foreign airspace, etc. And Israel's long term strategy is very simple to understand: get the Saudis (and others, but mostly the Saudis) onside by leveraging fear of Iran. Recently, the UAE and Bahrain (and also Morocco) normalized relations with Israel, which was a huge win for them. But Israel needs peace with Palestine to do so, as Arab Nations can't be seen as betraying Palestine.

So in short, Israel doesn't want the war to expand. So they don't expand the war. Nor do they talk about expanding the war, lest it encourage more attacks.

Answer 2

Question:

Why won't Israel take a more aggressive measure against the Houthis in Yemen?

Short Answer:

They don't want to provoke Saudi Arabia. If Israel can ignore the Houthis, they will. If Houthis causes Israeli casualties or hits something big, Israel will hit them back, regardless of Saudi. Even then though Israel's options in responding are limited. If Israel responds though, one can be certain they will chose something that hurts.

This could be it.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels hijack an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea and take 25 crew members hostage

Answer:

Any such response would require traversing Saudi controlled and monitored airspace and thus risk offending / provoking Saudi Arabia. Until very recently Israel and Saudi Arabia were discussing diplomatic recognition and trade for the first time in Israel's history. Such a deal would potentially be a very important relationship for Israel and very lucrative trade partner. These talks are on hold due to the actions of Hamas and Israel's response, but Israel is probable hopeful they could resume after the troubles. So as long as Houthis missiles can be intercepted by the Iron Dome Israel might choose to keep ignoring them as the lesser of two evils.

If the Houthis hit Israel and cause casualties it's likely Israel would get more aggressive with them, regardless of the Saudi's. Likely respond with missiles, drone attacks or perhaps a bombing mission. Invading and potentially occupying Yemen in order to pacify the Houthis is off the table. So no Gaza style boots on the ground invasion, and thus Israel is once again left with the punitive response rather than a lasting solution. Israel had a fighter strike against Iraq in the 80's to keep them from manufacturing a nuclear bomb. They've more recently used drone attacks against Iran. Israel also has formattable missiles capable of targeting Yemen accurately. Beyond these options Israel's capabilities are rather limited. Because Yemen is geographically removed from Israel, Israel's ability to directly invade or even keep up an extended air presence over Yemen is extremely limited, even with Saudi cooperation. Saudi's have cooperated with Israel in the past on such raids, but not recently, and that cooperation could likely not be counted on here. If Israel decides they must respond, they will regardless of the Saudi's.

The IDF is essentially a defense force without the kind of logistical infrastructure to project power geographically removed from their boarders beyond raids(air or ground), missiles, or drone attacks. Iran has pretty much the same problem which is why Iran uses proxies with pre-staged weapons. Most countries in the world cannot project air and ground forces extended from their own boarders in any meaningful way. There are really only 3 countries who can fight such wars on any scale (to project power). The United States, France and the UK. Maybe China, but that's still unclear and untested.

Still the Israeli IDF is a world class defense force, and their commanders are extremely creative. So an antagonist can't be confident Israel wouldn't have other options. Whatever they are they won't include a prolonged Gaza style invasion of Yemen. Israel will pick a response more favorable to their own abilities. It will be geared to punish.

Answer 3

1. They currently have an operation in Gaza. On top of that, there is an ongoing low intensity conflict on the northern border with Hezbollah. It can go hot at any moment if one of the parties give a casus belly to the other one, thus resulting in a larger scale conflit requiring many more men than the numbers they have in Gaza.

2. Houthis are just sending missiles at Israel from a long distance. They can easily be detected and intercepted. Besides that, with the proximity of their enemies and the threat of long range strike from Iran, Israel as a good expertise in air defense systems.

3. Yemen has been at war for a while with saudis arabia. Even if the later has a modern army, they have been quite sucessfull at pushing them back. For Israel, it means that retaliating require a complexe plan (are there AA system, potential logistic, boots on the ground ?). And they don't share a common border with Yemen, meaning they don't face a territorial threat.

Conclusion: when your army is currently mobilised by a military operation and must face a potential larger scale conflict from north, it's not worth bothering with some guys throwing missiles at you as you are in fact pretty good at shooting them.