Yemen’s Houthis shot a drone at Israel again on Monday despite a major joint strike by the US, UK, and Israel against them on Friday.

Air force defense systems intercepted the drone at an undisclosed location in southern Israel on Monday morning without sounding alert sirens, suggesting there had been confidence that the threat would be contained, the military announced.

There had been some hope that the combination of multiple more aggressive US attacks on the Houthis earlier last week, along with the joint attack on Friday – the largest of its kind against the Houthis since the start of the war – might finally deter the Houthis from attacking Israel.

Monday’s drone attack seemed to pour cold water on those hopes, though a drone is a smaller threat than a ballistic missile, which the Houthis have not fired since January 5.

For Israel, the joint Friday attack was the fifth counterattack on Yemen’s Houthis since July, with the group having spent around a year attacking Israel.

Regarding the US and UK, they have launched more attacks on the Houthis, but their two rounds of attacks on the Iranian proxy earlier last week, combined with the joint attack with Jerusalem on Friday, marked a significant escalation.

Until now, the problem for Israel and the West has been that despite superior firepower compared to the Houthis, the Yemen group has not been deterred and has been willing to endure even disproportionate counterstrikes so it can “stay in the game” against Israel in the war with Hamas and continue to cause trouble for global maritime trade for the West, viewed as supportive of Israel.