US-Israeli forces struck the Shahid Haqqani passenger pier in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on Wednesday, while a desalination plant on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz was put entirely out of service by separate strikes, Iranian officials confirmed. No casualties were reported at the passenger pier, but the destruction of the water plant threatens to deprive island residents of their primary source of drinkable water.

Water as a weapon of war

Ahmad Nafisi, a senior official in Iran’s Hormozgan province, condemned the attack on the passenger pier as criminal and said the targeting of civilian infrastructure constituted a clear violation of international humanitarian law. The Qeshm Island desalination plant served communities living along one of the world’s most strategic waterways. Its destruction is the latest in a pattern of strikes on civilian life-support infrastructure that has drawn repeated warnings from international legal experts.

The same day, US President Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s desalination plants nationwide, describing them as legitimate pressure points to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is an arid country where desalination infrastructure provides drinking water for millions of people. Deliberately targeting such facilities to cause civilian suffering is classified as a war crime under international humanitarian law. NPR reported that both sides have now hit civilian infrastructure throughout the conflict, though analysts note the scale of US-Israeli strikes on such sites far exceeds Iran’s counter-attacks.

Over the course of the war, more than 120 Iranian historical and cultural sites have been damaged, a pharmaceutical factory’s research division in Tehran has been destroyed, and now essential water infrastructure has been targeted. Iran’s cultural heritage minister has called it a deliberate war on the country’s identity.