Child Marriages Spike In Gaza Amid ‘Struggle To Survive,’ UN Says

Child marriages are surging in Gaza as families grappling with war and poverty push underage daughters into wedlock.

Over a brief monitoring period, Gaza’s emergency courts processed more than 400 marriage permits for girls between 14 and 16, and 71 percent of respondents in a recent study reported growing pressure to wed girls younger than 18, according to UN News, citing United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) data. Child marriage in Gaza had fallen steadily for more than a decade before the war reversed that progress.

UNFPA adolescent and youth programme officer Sima Alami told UN News that families view the practice as a way to cope. “Some families see marriage as a survival strategy amid displacement, poverty and insecurity,” Alami said. (RELATED: Trump Admin Launches Phase Two Of Gaza Peace Plan With Warning To Hamas)

Roughly one in ten newly registered pregnancies in December 2025 involved adolescent girls, many of whom were malnourished and had limited access to prenatal care, according to UNFPA. One 16-year-old from Beit Hanoun, identified by the pseudonym Hiba, told the agency she had resisted the arrangement. “I always rejected the idea of marriage. I wanted to succeed in my beauty salon project and build my future,” she said. The destruction of most schools across Gaza has also eliminated a critical buffer that had historically kept girls from early marriage, UNFPA noted.

Gaza: 96% of children say they feel death is imminent.

After more than two years of war & relentless violence, young Palestinians face a deepening mental health emergency. Girls are at particular risk, including a rise in child marriage, @UNFPA reports.https://t.co/7LQRWKL9qh

— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) March 20, 2026

The UN’s framing treats the spike almost entirely as an economic byproduct of conflict. Yet marriage in Gaza falls under sharia court jurisdiction, and some families have historically worked with clerics to arrange underage unions, according to Girls Not Brides. The organization’s data shows child marriage in Palestinian territories has historically increased during periods of political instability, suggesting the practice runs on deeper cultural and religious roots than the UN acknowledges.

The pattern extends beyond Gaza. Iraq’s parliament in January 2025 passed amendments granting Islamic courts expanded authority over family law, according to the Associated Press. Under the Jaafari school of Islamic jurisprudence followed by many Shiite authorities, girls can be married as young as nine. Conservative Shiite lawmakers who pushed the changes argued they brought Iraqi law in line with Islamic principles.

The legislation scrapped a prohibition on child marriage that had stood since the 1950s, according to Walk Free.