The Iran war’s targets widened dangerously into civilian infrastructure as Bahrain accused Iran of striking one of the desalination plants that are crucial for Gulf nations’ drinking water. Oil depots smouldered in Tehran after Israeli strikes, prompting environmental warnings.
In a sign of rising anger in the region, the Arab League chief lashed out at Iran for its “reckless policy” of attacking its neighbours. Gulf countries have already been struck by hundreds of missiles and drones, and Iran’s president vowed to expand attacks on US targets on the ninth day of the war.
Saudi Arabia reported its first deaths, saying a military projectile fell onto a residential area and killed two people of Indian and Bangladeshi nationality. It said 12 other Bangladeshis were wounded. Foreign residents and workers have made up most of the war’s deaths in Gulf nations.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have vowed to press ahead with the coordinated campaign against Iran, even as Washington's stated war aims have varied.
Trump told ABC News he wants a say in who comes to power in Iran once the war is over, adding that new leader “is not going to last long" without his approval.
In Israel, the military reported the first soldier deaths since the war began, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon while Israel targets the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Three people were injured in Israel in an afternoon strike.
The war, which Israel and the United States launched with airstrikes on February 28 that killed Iran's supreme leader, has killed at least 1230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and at least 11 in Israel, according to officials.
The US military said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven US soldiers have now been killed in the war.
The conflict has rattled global markets, disrupted air travel and left Iran’s leadership weakened by several thousand Israeli and US airstrikes.
Iran’s president toughens tone
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian backtracked from conciliatory comments a day earlier in which he apologised for attacks on Gulf neighbours' soil. Iranian hard-liners had swiftly contradicted him, saying war strategy wouldn’t change.
"The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be," Pezeshkian said Sunday. "Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression — and it never has."
Pezeshkian has urged neighbouring states not to take part in US and Israeli attacks.
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The US strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments but from US bases and vessels in the region.
"The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue," judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on X on Saturday.
Mohseni-Ejei and Pezeshkian are part of the three-member leadership council overseeing Iran since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.
Iran awaits the selection of a new supreme leader.
Desalination and oil facilities attacked
The Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also reported additional Iranian missiles launched toward them.
Bahrain accused Iran of indiscriminately attacking civilian targets and damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online.
Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region and thousands of stranded travellers, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.
Home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Bahrain also has seen hotels, ports and residential towers hit, with at least one person killed.
The desalination plant strike came after Iran said a US airstrike damaged a desalination plant there. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strike on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz had cut into the water supply to 30 villages.
He warned that in doing so "the US set this precedent, not Iran".
In response, CENTCOM spokesperson US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins said that "US forces do not target civilians – period."
Iranian authorities also said Israel's overnight strikes on four oil storage tankers and a petroleum transfer terminal killed four people. Witnesses in Tehran said the smoke was so thick that it looked as if the sun had not risen.
Israel's military said the oil depots were being used by Iran's military for fuel to launch missiles.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said about 10,000 civilian structures across the country had been damaged, including homes, schools and almost three dozen health facilities. It also warned Tehran residents to take precautions against toxic air pollution and the risk of acid rain after Israel's strikes.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, said the war's impact on the oil industry would spiral, warning it soon could become harder to produce and sell oil. Some regional producers, including in Iraq, have curbed output amid dangers in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran maintains sufficient fuel, Veys Karami, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, told Iran's state-run news agency.
More strikes hit Lebanon, half a million displaced
Lebanon said over a half-million people have been displaced in the week of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The actual number is likely higher. Lebanon's count of 517,000 refers to those who registered on the government's online portal. Israel over the past week has called on residents in dozens of villages across southern Lebanon and the entirety of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate as fighting intensifies.
Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said 83 children and 82 women have been among those killed.
In Beirut, sheltering families crammed into schools, slept in cars or in open areas near the Mediterranean Sea, where some burned firewood to keep warm. The government said it would open a sports stadium to shelter thousands more.
Israel's renewed offensive began last week after Hezbollah launched rockets toward northern Israel during the war's opening days. The strikes have been the most intense since a November 2024 ceasefire. Israel has continued near-daily strikes, primarily in southern Lebanon, saying Hezbollah had been trying to rebuild its positions there.
Hezbollah said last week that after more than a year of abiding by a ceasefire its patience has ended, leaving it with no option but to fight.
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