Tit-for-tat strikes on desalination plants and water facilities—starting with a U.S. hit on Iran’s Qeshm Island and later Iranian retaliation including a fire at a Kuwaiti hydroelectric and desalination plant—have become part of the wider conflict cycle.

The author argues such attacks breach international humanitarian law protections for civilian water resources, inflict short-term psychological pressure, and produce lasting humanitarian and regional water stress without delivering lasting strategic victory.

Given the Gulf’s heavy dependence on desalination for tens of millions of people, continued targeting risks a wider water crisis and erodes trust without advancing peace; the piece calls restraint and protection of civilian water infrastructure essential.

On 18 July 2026, the government of Kuwait announced the eruption of fire on the hydroelectric and water desalination plant, due to repetitive Iranian strikes. This is the latest incident in the chain of many tit-for-tat attacks on the hydrological infrastructure of the Gulf states, after the U.S. initiated the trend on March 7 by striking an Iranian water desalination plant in Qeshm Island. In the broader context, the pattern of events indicates that attacks on water infrastructure offer transient tactical temptation but no strategic gains in the longer run. Devoid of regard for International Humanitarian Law (IHL), strikes on water infrastructure inflict temporary psychological pressure at a cost of long-term regional instability, humanitarian catastrophe, and global crises.

The attacks on water infrastructure are not new to the domain of warfare; however, the ongoing war has........

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