Gaza Devastation Drives Surge in Child Marriages

In a tented camp in Gaza, one mother's desperate calculation is playing out across an entire war zone. The AP follows "Majda," who lost her husband and eldest son to Israeli airstrikes and, fearing hunger, harassment, and homelessness, agreed to marry off her 13- and 14-year-old daughters to men who promised shelter and support. "I thought I was protecting them," she said. "Fear was slaughtering me." Instead, the girls describe repeated rapes, beatings, miscarriages, and high-risk pregnancies—abuse they eventually fled, only to be pressured back to their husbands.

Reporters Toqa Ezzidin and Wafaa Shurafa place Majda's story in a broader pattern: new Shariah Court data show early marriages rising again in Gaza, with over 20% of 35,474 recent unions involving girls under 18 and at least 627 brides under 15, a reversal of prewar declines. Aid dependence, shattered schools, mass displacement, and fears for girls' safety are driving families to see marriage as survival, experts say, even as doctors warn of malnutrition and life-threatening births among teenage mothers. For more, read the full AP piece.