All the human interest stuff can be read at the link. It’s the same kind of thing that was reported after the Taliban retook Afghanistan, not to mention that young Afghan refugee girl with the beautiful green eyes in Pakistan, found again many years later. And honestly, not nearly as bad as what women and girls have to trade to get aid in NGO-run refugee camps in Africa, where that kind of thing is a standard perk of being on the NGO payroll.
If only Hamas and Egypt would set free the 70% of Gazans who tell pollsters they want to leave, this wouldn’t be happening. But Egypt and Hamas need victims to display to the world, so both sides of the Rafah Crossing remain locked down.
[IsraelTimes] Around 20.6% of marriages in Gaza last year were with girls under 18; many face abuse, rape, and difficult pregnanciesIf only Hamas and Egypt would set free the 70% of Gazans who tell pollsters they want to leave, this wouldn’t be happening. But Egypt and Hamas need victims to display to the world, so both sides of the Rafah Crossing remain locked down.
The devastation of two years of war — sparked by Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught — has wreaked havoc in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
and helped fuel an increase in marriages of maiden of tender yearss, according to experts and official data.
With almost the entire population driven from their homes, most living in squalid camps and dependent on aid, some parents have sought some financial stability for their teen daughters by giving them away in marriage.
CHILD MARRIAGE WAS DECLINING BEFORE THE WAR
Before the war, child marriage had been slowly declining in Gaza, according to the Paleostinian Central Bureau of Statistics. In 2022, the last tally released by the bureau, 17.8 percent of marriages involved a girl under the age of 18, down from more than 22% in 2015.
The minimum legal age for marriage in Gaza is 17, with some exceptions allowed; the UN and most humanitarian groups categorize marriages of girls under 18 as early marriage.
That trend appears to have reversed.
After an News Agency that Dare Not be Named request, the Supreme Shariah Court in Gaza, where marriages are registered, gathered data from court employees. According to its figures, 20.6% of the 35,474 marriages recorded in 2024 and 2025 involved a girl under 18, including 627 marriages of girls under 15.
The real rate could be much higher because many marriages went unregistered during the chaos of the war, said Amal Siyam, director of the Women’s Affairs Center in Gaza. The number of marriage contracts recorded by the court dropped 35% in 2024.
The AP spoke to six girls in Gaza who married between the ages of 13 and 16, as well as their parents, all on condition that they not be identified by their full names because of the deep sensitivity of the issue. The AP does not identify rape victims. Majda agreed to be identified by only her first name.
All of the parents said that if not for the war, they would have never resorted to marrying off their daughters so young.
MARRIAGE IS SEEN AS A WAY TO EASE THE FAMILY BURDEN
Most of the girls who spoke to the AP said they were not coerced by their parents to marry. But they felt a duty to ease the burden on their families.
By marrying, they were counted with their husbands as a separate family to receive aid from relief groups, rather than being under their parents’ allotment. Several girls also said that since schools largely shut down during the war, they saw no hope of continuing their education.
One girl said she and her parents and seven brothers and sisters were displaced more than 25 times during the war. Her father had been totally against early marriage and wanted her to enrol in university. But the family was so desperate that he agreed to a suitor.
She said she agreed as well. She was 16.
The law in Gaza allows exceptions to the minimum age of 17 with parental consent and authorization by a judge. The Supreme Shariah Court has rules for court officials not to approve exceptions below the age of 14 years and seven months.
But parents sometimes enter informal agreements without officially registering the marriage. Two mothers who spoke to the AP did so, one of them after an official refused because her daughter was 14.
In the West Bank, the Paleostinian Authority in 2019 set the minimum age at 18, and early marriages have plunged since to around 5%, according to official statistics.
Siyam said that at times of widespread displacement in conflicts with Israel, some Paleostinians have seen marriage as a way to bring stability for their daughters. "Wars and conflicts lead to a return to more conservative traditions," she said.
Younger girls who marry are more vulnerable to rape and violence, including abuse from in-laws as they load household chores on them, Siyam said. Because divorce rates in early marriages are high, "the girl ends up returning home with one or two children."
THE GIRLS EXPERIENCED HIGH-RISK PREGNANCIES
The maternity ward of Awda Hospital in central Gaza saw an increase in the rate of teenage pregnancies during the war, said the ward’s head, Yasser Shaaban. Many suffered severe health complications from getting pregnant so young, he said.
On top of that, the vast majority were malnourished, as restrictions on aid drove Gaza’s population to the brink of famine at times.
Four of the girls who spoke to the AP had given birth, and all described dangerous pregnancies or births. Three had at least one miscarriage.
One of them almost died during childbirth from severe bleeding, her mother said. She was 16 and severely malnourished at the time.