On March 30, 2026, Trump escalated his threats against Iranian civilian infrastructure to include water. He threatened to “blow up and completely obliterate” Iran's desalination plants — facilities that convert seawater into drinking water — alongside power plants, oil wells, and Kharg Island if negotiations failed or the Strait of Hormuz wasn't reopened.
Trump's exact target list: “all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”
Desalination plants are civilian infrastructure that supply populations with essential drinking water. Threatening to destroy them is threatening to cut off water to civilian populations.
International law experts were unequivocal. Yusra Suedi, international law professor at the University of Manchester: “This is clearly an act of collective punishment, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law.” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN: described the threats as “textbook collective punishment and a war crime.” Annie Shiel of the Center for Civilians in Conflict warned: “Impacts would be devastating and widespread: think hospitals without power for life-saving care, illnesses from a lack of clean water.”
The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits “collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism.” Targeting objects indispensable to the survival of civilian populations — including water — is a war crime under international humanitarian law.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt claimed the administration “will always act within the confines of the law.” The president had just threatened to destroy drinking water infrastructure.
This represents a clear escalation from Trump's March 21 threat against power plants. The timeline: March 21, power plants threatened (48-hour ultimatum). March 23, backed down. March 26, deadline extended to April 6. March 30, water facilities added to the target list. Each time diplomacy stalls, Trump adds more civilian infrastructure to his threat.
In July 2026, the threat became fact. A U.S. strike damaged the water desalination plant serving Bonji village in southern Iran, leaving roughly 10,000 residents across nearly two dozen villages without drinking water in extreme heat. Kenneth Roth, the former Human Rights Watch director, said the plant “is not a legitimate military target. It is a war crime to target it.” Provincial officials reported civilian deaths from the month's strikes, including a woman, and a one-year-old whose injuries required amputation; by mid-July at least 41 Iranians had been killed and 408 wounded in the month's U.S. attacks, which also hit nine bridges, two airports, a rail junction, a road tunnel, ports, and left 116 communications towers out of service. Days earlier Trump had told Fox News, “next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges,” and the week delivered them (see Trump Declares His Iran Ceasefire 'Over,' Calling Tehran's Leaders 'Scum' as the War Reignites).
Correction (October 2, 2026): We removed a citation whose link no longer resolves to the cited article and could not be verified: Al Jazeera (“Is Trump's threat to bomb Iran's civilian infrastructure a war crime?”). The remaining sources are listed below.