Women in Gaza are being traded for food and forced into marriages with their rapists, according to a pair of reports from the United Nations — underscoring the critical importance of President Trump’s Board of Peace in the war-torn enclave.
There was a 123% increase in the number of early and forced marriage incidents across Gaza in the first quarter of 2026, with women between the ages of 18-59 suffering 68% of all gender-based violence (GBV) in the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations’ Population Fund (UNFPA) found.
Researchers spoke to women who said young girls were married off to rapists, traded for food or given up by guardians who did not want to take care of them amid the humanitarian crisis caused by the Israel-Hamas war.
“These trends are attributed to heightened stress felt by women and men forced to live in inadequate and overcrowded shelters and continued limited access to basic resources including food, water, basic hygiene materials and clothing.”
The second report highlighted some of the most distressing incidents inside refugee camps in Gaza City and Khan Younis, where 230 women shared their stories.
One refugee living in a school-turned shelter said that rape victims are often forced to marry 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 said.
Another woman recalled how a man married off his 14-year-old daughter in exchange for “two bags of flour so he and his [other] children could eat.”
Others claimed that many families looked to marry their girls off early so that their husbands could help protect them from rapists lurking in the overcrowded refugee camps. The UNFPA previously reported on how girls orphaned by war are especially vulnerable to sexual violence.
Still, other girls are simply abandoned by their caretakers, one woman living in a Gaza City camp said, noting she attended such weddings for a 14- and 15-year-old.
Bar chart showing the breakdown of reported GBV incidents in Gaza by gender and age from April to June 2026. The highest proportion, 68%, are females aged 18-59.
Women ages 18 to 59 make up the vast majority of victims of gender based violence inside Gaza.
“Their uncles married them off very young. Do you know why? Because their father and mother were martyred, and their uncles wanted to get rid of the responsibility and expenses,” the woman told researchers.
Widows and single mothers are also at greater risk of being sexually abused and exploited, as nearly 25% of all households in Gaza are now headed by a woman, double what it was before the war, according to the UNFPA.
“One widow was looking for a tent, and a [camp] representative told her, “I’ll give you a tent, we’ll put you in our camp, and you can come stay with me tonight,” one witness in Gaza City recalled.
The humanitarian crisis inside Gaza remains ongoing as skirmishes between Hamas and Israel continue, with nearly all 2.1 million Palestinians still displaced as the Jewish state controls about 70% of the land.
The reports underscore the importance of President Trump’s Board of Peace, which announced a multi-phase recovery plan for the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, with the first step set to cost $2.45 billion over six months.
The plan, unveiled on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in midtown Manhattan, comprises 66 programs focused on infrastructure, economic growth and installing an international security force.
The final cost of the completed reconstruction is estimated to be $71 billion.
