Reports of gender-based violence against women and girls in the Gaza Strip have risen sharply, with a particular surge in early and forced marriages, according to new findings from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Data compiled from ten humanitarian organisations, including the International Rescue Committee, shows that reported cases of forced and early marriage rose by 123% in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the first — a trend the UN describes as a "severe escalation." Sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault, has also reached what the UNFPA calls "critical" levels, with reported cases rising 61% in absolute numbers between the first and second quarters of the year.

The findings paint a grim picture of life for the more than two million people in Gaza, nearly all of whom have been displaced from their homes since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023. Roughly 90% of buildings have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, public services have largely collapsed, and families continue to live in overcrowded tent camps or damaged structures with little privacy or security. UNFPA representative to Palestine Nestor Owomuhangi says the cumulative toll of three years of war has dismantled the social fabric entirely: "Everything is eroded — there is no system." A separate UNFPA report, drawing on interviews with 230 women in displacement camps in Gaza City and Khan Younis, documents the daily reality: women avoiding shared latrines at night for fear of assault, sexual harassment near washing facilities, and rape cases reportedly hushed up — with victims then forced into marriage with their attackers or others.

Economic desperation is driving many families toward child marriage. Six women in different displacement camps described girls being given in marriage in exchange for food — in one case, a 14-year-old traded for two bags of flour so her father could feed his other children. Orphaned girls are especially at risk; without a father or guardian, responsibility passes to uncles or other relatives who may see marriage as a way to shed financial burdens. One woman described attending the weddings of two girls from her family, aged 14 and 15, whose parents had been killed: "Their uncles married them off very young... they wanted to get rid of the responsibility and expenses." Approximately two-thirds of reported forced marriage cases involved women aged 18–59, while 16% involved girls between 12 and 17. Most reports came from Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and northern Gaza.

The health consequences are severe. Adolescent pregnancies linked to child marriage are rising sharply, with young girls — themselves malnourished and living in unhygienic conditions — facing significantly higher rates of miscarriage and underweight births than adult women. "A child who is at an age when the body is not fully developed to sustain another body, who is hungry, in unhygienic circumstances... the consequences of that pregnancy are always really, really bad," Owomuhangi said. Before the war, girls in Gaza outnumbered and outperformed boys at every level of education above primary school; now, prolonged school closures and family pressure have pushed many out of education permanently. One teenage girl, now pregnant after being married at 16, will not return to school — her father-in-law says her education "would be in vain."

Aid agencies stress that improving humanitarian conditions is the most immediate way to reduce the dangers women face. Calls have been made for Israel to allow better-quality shelters, improved sanitation infrastructure, and lighting into the territory — items Israel currently restricts on the grounds of potential dual military use. Longer-term efforts to address domestic violence and child marriage are under way, but the scale of structural collapse makes progress difficult. Sexual violence remains acutely under-reported due to stigma and fear of retaliation, meaning the figures available almost certainly understate the true extent of the crisis. Nearly one in four households in Gaza is now headed by a woman — double the pre-war proportion — leaving widows and women with missing or detained husbands especially exposed to exploitation.