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UN Agency Reports Sharp Rise in Violence Against Women in Gaza

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The UN Population Fund reports a 123% jump in early and forced marriage cases in Gaza in the second quarter of 2026, warning of eroded social structures.

Reports of violence against women and girls in the Gaza Strip have climbed steeply, with a marked jump in early and forced marriages, according to a set of recent findings from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). One study, drawing on data gathered by 10 separate organisations, concluded that the drawn-out emergency in the territory has produced circumstances where women and girls confront mounting dangers of gender-based violence.

The same report flagged what it called a "severe escalation" in cases of early and forced marriage during the second quarter of 2026. The UNFPA said reported incidents of such marriages rose 123% compared with the first quarter. Early or child marriage, as recorded in the findings, involved girls between the ages of 12 and 17. Both forced marriage and child marriage fall under the UN's definition of gender-based violence.

The agency acknowledged that pinning down exact numbers is difficult, given the conditions on the ground. Even so, Nestor Owomuhangi, the UNFPA representative to Palestine, described the pattern as deeply alarming. He said three years of extreme hardship - during which tens of thousands have died and repeated waves of displacement have swept the population - have dismantled the community's foundations, leaving what he characterised as a total absence of any functioning system.

Testimony from the camps

A second report compiled accounts from 230 women sheltering in overcrowded displacement sites in Gaza City and Khan Younis. The testimony is stark. One woman staying in a school converted into a shelter described how survivors of rape are frequently wed to the men who attacked them, a move families make to head off disgrace. She said that when assaults come to light inside the schools, marriage ceremonies and celebrations follow there the very next day.

Another account recalled the period of famine the previous year, when a father handed over his 14-year-old daughter in marriage in return for two sacks of flour, allowing him to feed himself and his remaining children. Six women across different camps recounted similar transactions - arrangements the report noted would have been inconceivable before hostilities between Israel and Hamas erupted in 2023.

Collapsed services and closed schools

The conditions behind these accounts remain severe. Food markets have started operating again, yet many families cannot pay for what is on sale, and deep poverty and hunger persist alongside dependence on aid handouts. Almost the entire population of more than two million people has been forced from home, with most now sheltering in makeshift tent settlements or damaged structures. Around 1.2 million Palestinians are living in tents or improvised shelters. Public services have largely broken down, and Israeli air strikes have carried on despite the ceasefire.

Education has been badly disrupted. Before the war, girls in Gaza both outnumbered and outscored boys at every stage of schooling beyond primary level. Extended closures have since pushed many children out of the classroom altogether. Boys face pressure to take on informal work to help support their households, while for girls the central concern has become personal safety.

Living packed together among strangers, without privacy, in a socially conservative setting, women and girls report rising sexual harassment and abuse. Many families now regard marrying off their daughters as a means of shielding them and safeguarding their reputation. The UNFPA findings were based on research conducted in late 2025 and early 2026.

Gaza violence against women, UNFPA report, forced marriage Gaza, gender-based violence, child marriage Gaza, Gaza displacement camps, Nestor Owomuhangi, Palestine humanitarian crisis

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