An Iranian drone attack damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain, bringing the war to the oil-rich Persian Gulf’s most strategic resource: drinking water.

The attack did material damage, the Gulf state’s Interior Ministry said Sunday. Iran hadn’t addressed the attack, but a day earlier Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. had attacked an Iranian desalination plant on the Gulf island of Qeshm. “The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran,” Araghchi said on social media.

A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, denied that the military hit a desalination plant in Iran.

With desalination plants, the set of infrastructure targets being struck in the war has expanded, marking a new and dangerous escalation in a region where many countries have limited onshore sources of fresh water.

The Middle East’s abundant desalination plants, which remove salt from the Persian Gulf’s seawater, are the key source of drinking water for millions of residents in the arid region.

“It’s really going for the jugular, and in a major way,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, a Washington think tank. “These desalination plants, even more than the energy infrastructure of the Gulf monarchies, are their Achilles’ heel.”

The Middle East accounts for more than 40% of the world’s desalination capacity, with around 5,000 plants feeding its water systems.

Bahrain, where the drone strike occurred, is almost completely dependent on its plants for drinking water for its population of 1.6 million. Israel depends on the plants for about 80% of its drinkable water. About 90% of Kuwait’s water needs are met by desalination.

Vehicles drive past a building that was damaged by an Iranian drone attack, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Seef, Manama, Bahrain, March 1, 2026. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

While many Gulf countries keep strategic water reserves, smaller nations like Bahrain could see their stocks drawn down in days if their production capacity is compromised.

Saudi Arabia, the largest of the Gulf countries, has more ability to sustain attacks on water supplies than its immediate neighbors, Ibish said.

As the war in the Middle East continues, civilian and economic infrastructure is increasingly coming under attack.

On Saturday, a drone exploded near Dubai’s airport, forcing the temporary suspension of flights. The United Arab Emirates government said fragments of another projectile hit a residential building in the touristy Dubai Marina neighborhood. Saudi Aramco’s Berri oil field was targeted Saturday by a drone, likely from Iran, Saudi officials familiar with the matter said. Saudi officials also said the kingdom downed two ballistic missiles headed to a military base and intercepted several waves of drones headed for the Shaybah oil field. Two fuel tanks at Kuwait’s main airport were hit by drones in a direct attack on critical infrastructure, Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said early Sunday.

Earlier in the week, Bahrain said a fire broke out at a unit of the state-run Bapco Energies refinery after an Iranian missile strike. An Iranian drone attack set fire to an oil tank in the city of Fujairah in the U.A.E. on Tuesday. Iran targeted Saudi Arabia’s key Ras Tanura oil complex at least twice in the past week. Qatar shut down its liquid natural gas exports after Iranian drones targeted key facilities.

The conflict has stunned residents of Gulf countries, many of which have never come under intense attack and have few bomb shelters or early-warning systems ready.

Israel’s military said late Saturday local time that it targeted several fuel-storage facilities in Tehran that belong to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Israel’s strikes marked the first time in the war that its military has struck energy infrastructure in Iran after long public debates on the consequences of such an attack.

Following the Israeli strikes on the fuel tanks, authorities in Tehran cut fuel allowances for motorists, the capital’s governor said.

Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com and Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com