I wonder if the reason is concern over a second northern front without enough resources to fight on both fronts, I suppose from Israel’s point of view if there are a few releases of hostages and targeted bombing can continue, there is no urgent reason to move to the inevitably bloody invasion, possibly also waiting for weather to turn colder figuring that will weaken resistance among an enemy without shelter. Possibly another factor is that valuable intel is being gathered, and said intel would stop being available if enemies were not at enough leisure to be in communication.
If Israel is gaining daily in intel concerning positions of key enemy fighters (who are targeted for elimination), then why move before a full picture can be drawn up? Delay could also be related to logistics of hostage rescue.
I would have to think also on a larger regional scale, various players are in constant communication and Israel is no doubt monitoring all of that, and probably gaining all sorts of knowledge about Iran that they can use if they decide to strike them.
It’d be interesting to look at previous large scale Israeli ground actions following particularly significant terrorist attacks. How quickly could Israel get the larger actions fully rolling, and so on?
I expected Israel to move once the weather cleared last week, but, they may be calculating they can degrade Hamas faster than Hamas can repair its defenses. I don’t buy the argument that under bombardment, Hamas can greatly expand / enhance its defenses beyond what they’ve already built in the last decade or so.
I also wonder what preps yet need to be made to fight Hezbollah? From the Israeli view (much less the US), waiting for the Eisenhower strike force to arrive as additional backup likely makes a lot of sense.