The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported a 123% increase in reports of forced and child marriages in Gaza between January and June 2026, while an investigation by the Associated Press revealed girls as young as 13 were married to adult men.
According to the data of the Supreme Sharia Court in Gaza, 20.6% of the 35,474 marriages registered in 2024 and 2025 involved girls under the age of 18, including 627 marriages of girls under the age of 15. Before the war, the marriage rate was 17.8% in 2022.
AP interviewed six married girls between the ages of 13 and 16. Two described repeated rape and physical abuse, four experienced dangerous pregnancies and three suffered miscarriages.
One Palestinian mother married her daughters, aged 13 and 14, to two brothers in their 20s after losing her husband and eldest son. Both girls subsequently reported sexual and physical abuse. Separate UN investigations documented cases in which girls were married to their rapists and a father married off his 14-year-old daughter in exchange for two bags of flour.
Researchers warn that the true number of child marriages may be significantly higher because many marriages are never officially registered.