Child marriage rises in war‑torn Gaza families seek safety

A desperate mother in Gaza, widowed and displaced by the conflict, married her two young daughters to men who promised them safety. That decision, which she now deeply regrets, has led to horrific abuse for the girls and reflects a broader reversal of a years-long decline in child marriage across the territory, according to official data and experts.

The mother, identified only as Majda, said her husband and eldest son were killed in airstrikes in April 2024. Living in a ragged tent camp with her remaining children, she said she was paralyzed by grief, destitute, and terrified for her daughters' safety. When two brothers in their 20s, former neighbors, asked to marry her 13- and 14-year-old daughters, her father and the suitors' family insisted it was the only way. "I thought I was protecting them," Majda said. "Fear was slaughtering me."

Her story is part of a wider trend. Before the war, child marriage had been slowly declining in Gaza. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 17.8 percent of marriages in 2022 involved a girl under 18, down from more than 22 percent in 2015. The minimum legal age is 17, with exceptions allowed.