There has been a sharp rise in reports of violence against women and girls in the Gaza Strip, including early and forced marriage, according to a series of recent reports from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). One report, which analyses data collected by 10 organisations, says, external the protracted crisis in war-torn Gaza has "created conditions in which women and girls face escalating risks of gender-based violence". It also warns that there has been a "severe escalation" in the number of early and forced marriage incidents in the second quarter of this year.
Both are considered types of gender-based violence (GBV) by the UN. Another report presenting testimony from 230 women in crowded displacement camps in Gaza City and Khan Younis, external makes for a grim read, describing the violence they have experienced or witnessed. Some readers may find some of the details in this report distressing One displaced woman in a school-turned-shelter in Gaza highlights how rape victims are often married to their rapists to avoid shame and scandal.
"When rape cases are discovered in schools, you find weddings and celebrations at the school the next day," she says. Another woman tells how last year, at the time of famine, "a man married off his 14-year-old daughter in exchange for two bags of flour so he and his [other] children could eat". Six women in different displacement camps shared stories of such exchanges - which would have been unthinkable before the conflict between Israel and Hamas began in 2023.
Although data collection to establish actual figures remains tricky, in the second quarter of this year, the UNFPA says the number of reported cases of early and forced marriage had increased by 123% on the first quarter. Early or child marriage involved girls aged 12 to 17. "The trends are shocking," says Nestor Owomuhangi, the UNFPA representative to Palestine.
He says that the extreme circumstances over the past three years - which have seen tens of thousands of people killed, mass destruction and multiple waves of displacement in Gaza - have broken down social structures, so "everything is eroded... there is no system". While food markets have reopened, many cannot afford the goods on offer, there is still extreme poverty and hunger with reliance on charitable handouts. Nearly all the population of more than two million Gazans have been driven from their homes, leaving most living in squalid tent camps or damaged buildings.
Public services have largely collapsed, and Israeli air strikes have continued despite the ceasefire. Prior to the war, girls in Gaza outnumbered and outperformed boys at every level of education above primary school. Now, with prolonged school closures, many children have dropped out of education.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
