Following a round of airstrikes on Houthi targets and positions in Yemen last week, the group’s message to The White House (and Number 10) was unequivocal: Attacks on ships in and near the Red Sea will continue.

And they have. The attacks have continued. Which, as discussed here, means US airstrikes on Yemen will probably continue too, because neither side has an obvious off ramp. De-escalation is, for now anyway, impossible.

On Monday, the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile at the US-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged Gibraltar Eagle in the Gulf of Aden. And they hit it.

There were “no injuries” and “no significant damage,” Central Command said, adding that the ship was able to “continu[e] its journey.” The vessel’s operator appeared to confirm that assessment. The ship sustained “limited damage to a cargo hold but is stable and heading out of the area,” Eagle Bulk told Politico.

The incident occurred less than 24 hours after the Houthis tried to hit a US destroyer in the area. That didn’t work. US warplanes shot that missile down. In light of Monday’s attack on the Gibraltar Eagle, my guess would be it’s just a matter of time before those same warplanes are shooting at Houthi targets in Yemen. Again.

The Houthis, through Saba News, offered an explanation for Monday’s attack. “The Yemeni armed forces consider all American and British ships and warships as hostile targets,” the group said, calling its ongoing efforts to disrupt maritime traffic “a victory for the Palestinian people in Gaza” where, as a Houthi spokesman put it, the populace is being “subjected to the ugliest types”of treatment by the Israeli army.

In the same statement, the group preemptively pledged to “punish” the US and Britain should The White House and Downing Street decide to target Houthi assets in Yemen again. “A response to American and British attacks will inevitably come,” the rebels declared.

(As an aside: The “rebels” description is a bit tiresome by now. They run the place and they have for years. Not entirely, not everywhere and certainly not in a manner consistent with anyone’s idea of “good government,” but if you can name three or more officials in Yemen’s internationally-recognized leadership council, congratulations: You’re better informed than most experts on the region.)

In case it isn’t clear enough: The Houthis are going to keep shooting at ships and that’ll almost invariably elicit additional US and UK airstrikes. Try as they might, Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak won’t be able to avoid killing a few (and quite possibly more than a few) Houthi fighters if America and Britain do in fact continue to bomb strategic targets tied to the group’s “naval” operations.

Seven years of intractable war with the Saudi-led coalition (which was armed by the US) suggests the Houthis’ tolerance for losses, both combatants and civilians, is quite high, and their baseline assumption for the country seems to be perpetual armed conflict. So, “We’ll demoralize them,” probably isn’t a viable strategy if you’re the Pentagon.

So far, the regime in Tehran insists the Houthis have operational independence from the Quds and that they have more than enough latitude in that regard to carry out attacks in the Red Sea with or without the IRGC’s blessing.

Of course, everyone involved (on both sides) knows that’s completely absurd, which means if the US and the UK want this situation resolved, there are only two options: Convince Benjamin Netanyahu to call a ceasefire in Gaza or give Iran itself an ultimatum.