The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is driving a sharp rise in reported violence against women and girls, including early and forced marriage, the UN Population Fund has said. The agency says families facing displacement and food shortages are marrying off girls in circumstances that camp residents said would have been unimaginable before the war.
An UNFPA report analysing data collected by 10 organisations found that reported cases of early and forced marriage rose by 123% in the second quarter of this year compared with the first quarter. The report said the protracted crisis had “created conditions in which women and girls face escalating risks of gender-based violence”.
The findings draw on research conducted in late 2025 and early 2026. A separate UNFPA report includes testimony from 230 women living in crowded displacement camps in Gaza City and Khan Younis.
One account described a man who married his 14-year-old daughter in exchange for two bags of flour, allowing him and his other children to eat. Six women in different displacement camps told UNFPA of daughters being exchanged in marriages for food.
Women also described marriages arranged after sexual violence was discovered. One displaced woman in Gaza said: “When rape cases are discovered in schools, you find weddings and celebrations at the school the next day”.
Girls without parents are among those particularly vulnerable to forced marriage, according to the UNFPA’s assessment.
Nestor Owomuhangi, the UNFPA representative to Palestine, said: “The trends are shocking”. He said extreme conditions over the past three years, including tens of thousands of deaths, mass destruction and repeated displacement, had broken down social structures.
Nearly all the population of more than two million Gazans have been driven from their homes. About 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in tents or makeshift shelters. Owomuhangi said: “We see adolescent pregnancies going through the roof because of child marriage”.
Gaza’s law sets a minimum marital age of 17, while allowing exceptions with parental consent and authorisation by a judge. Court officials can approve marriage for people as young as 14 years and seven months old.
The reported rise marks a sharp change from conditions before the war. Before the conflict, girls in Gaza outnumbered and outperformed boys at every level of education above primary school.
The wider toll on women and girls has also been severe. Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, more than 28,000 women and girls have been killed, according to UN Women. UN Women says women and girls in Gaza are being killed at an average rate of one every hour.
The UNFPA reports do not give a total number of early and forced marriages since the conflict began. It is also unclear whether cases reported to aid organisations reflect the full scale of marriages carried out under pressure or duress.
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