A US strike damaged the Bunji desalination facility west of Jask, disrupting drinking-water supplies for about 10,000 people in 20 villages, Iranian officials said on July 18, 2026. The reported attack came during a seventh consecutive night of renewed US operations against targets in Iran, including bridges and communications infrastructure in the country’s south.
Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, head of Hormozgan province’s water and wastewater company, said the seawater intake pumping station and the electrical transformer serving the plant were completely destroyed. The facility had capacity to produce 3,150 cubic metres of fresh water per day. Eight tanker trucks were deployed to provide basic supplies to affected residents.
The damage placed civilian water systems inside a widening regional exchange. Iran retaliated against the renewed US attacks by striking sites in several countries. Kuwait said one of its power plants and a desalination facility had been hit, forcing multiple generation units offline. The country depends on desalination for about 90% of its drinking water and suspended operations at Kuwait International Airport amid repeated missile and drone threats.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted a US military-support centre at Camp Arifjan and a radar system at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. Tehran also reported attacks on US bases in Bahrain and Jordan. The supplied account did not independently establish whether every claimed military target was struck or distinguish the damage caused by individual weapons.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was particularly concerned about attacks on civilian infrastructure across Iran and the region and called such attacks unacceptable. Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, condemned repeated strikes on civilian sites, including vital road and rail networks, and characterised them as war crimes. Those legal allegations had not been adjudicated.
Iran’s Health Ministry said US attacks from June 27 to July 18 had killed 50 people and injured 500. The figures were official Iranian totals in the supplied report and were not accompanied by an independent assessment.
The renewed confrontation followed the breakdown of a June ceasefire. President Donald Trump had announced an end to that arrangement after negotiations stalled and threatened attacks on Iranian power stations and bridges in an effort to reduce Tehran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz. The United States also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to restrict crude-oil shipments.
For the villages around Jask, the immediate consequence was more concrete than the broader strategic dispute: a daily source of drinking water stopped operating. Emergency tankers could meet only initial needs while destroyed intake and power equipment required repair or replacement.
