UN report alleges Gaza war worsened sexual violence risks for Palestinian women

UNFPA acknowledged that women participating in the group discussions would be unlikely to disclose violence committed by armed groups, meaning that the “findings should therefore not be interpreted as indicative of the prevalence or absence of GBV perpetrated by Palestinian armed actors.”

The report nevertheless acknowledged that, even before the war, Palestinian women and girls faced “substantial GBV risks due to deep-seated gender norms that position women as subordinate to men, limit their autonomy and freedom of movement, and normalize male control over women’s bodies, resources, and decision-making.” These norms, it said, were “embedded in legal, social, and cultural systems.”

According to documents published by UN Women in 2019, outdated laws in the Palestinian territories have long deprived Palestinian women of mechanisms to hold their abusers accountable. A 2019 UNFPA survey found that nearly two-thirds of married women in Gaza had experienced domestic violence, amid the absence of a law criminalizing the abuse.

The latest report also noted that the widespread destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure during the war had severely disrupted legal, healthcare, and education systems that previously provided support and protection for women and girls. These disruptions, it said, had deprived women of mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable and denied rape survivors access to essential services. However, it is not clear what mechanisms UNFPA was referring to, as there is no law in the Palestinian territory that specifically criminalizes domestic violence.

Highlighting the norms and lack of proper legal protections, one woman said she reported a man who pressed against her to camp authorities but was told by women in the camp and her neighbors that she had “exposed” herself to the harassment.

“I’m really confused about this society. I’m forced to keep quiet,” she said.

Palestinian women and girls are also at greater risk of sexual violence as a result of the severing of community and familial protections, the report found. The “overcrowded, unsafe and undignified” living conditions in displacement camps have reportedly contributed to an increase in rapes, assaults, domestic violence and sexual harassment.

Israel has issued evacuation orders directing civilians away from conflict zones or Hamas infrastructure, which is frequently embedded in or underneath civilian sites. Though Israel has insisted the measures are designed to minimize civilian casualties, critics have condemned them for uprooting and disrupting Palestinian communities.

The report also alleged that Israel’s “blockage of aid” had intensified shortages of food and other essential resources, creating economic desperation that could be exploited. UNFPA said this had reportedly contributed to increases in sexual exploitation, economic abuse, survival sex and forced marriage.

One woman said that her family had begun marrying off girls young as they couldn’t afford to feed or provide for them, while another woman said she was aware of women being denied the opportunity to marry as her father wanted to continue taking her salary for himself.

Resource scarcity has reportedly contributed to a rise in survival sex, child, early and forced marriage, denial of marriage, the exploitation of widows, divorcees and wives of detainees, as well as domestic violence and economic abuse. UNFPA alleged that Israel’s decision to bar 37 aid groups in Gaza that refused to comply with its registration law had worsened the deprivation, despite documented evidence that some humanitarian workers were also members of Hamas.

The report also criticized "Israel’s attempts to create a parallel aid distribution system and restrictions imposed by Israel on established humanitarian actors," which it said had weakened the safeguards designed to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse.

Though the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories has not yet responded to The Jerusalem Post’s request for comment on the relevant safeguards in place, the UN has notably faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct in Gaza and other territories and conflict zones. According to the UN’s own figures, it received 758 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving staff, related personnel and partners in 2024.

A major issue highlighted by the report was the lack of doors and privacy, leaving Palestinian women at greater risk of violence without basic physical safeguards. Poorly planned water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in the camps, including inadequate lighting, isolated areas and a lack of single-sex facilities, have left women more physically exposed, the report noted.

“The restrooms are also the most common place for harassment of girls. Once, I was going to the restroom and saw a young man harassing young girls, staring at them and touching their private parts. I called out to him, asking what he was doing, and he quickly ran away,” one woman said.

Another woman said her neighbor “went to bathe at night because the bathrooms were empty. While she was bathing, she heard whispering. The bathroom had no roof, so she looked up and saw a young man watching her. She quickly put on her clothes and left the bathroom. She couldn’t tell anyone because she was afraid of being shamed. She has grown daughters and feared their reputation would be ruined. She was exhausted from crying and grief; I thought someone had died in her family.”

The report also described cases in which women and girls allegedly lacked timely access to services following sexual assaults. Women who are frequently displaced may struggle to locate or trust services that can protect them from unwanted pregnancies or HIV contracted through rape.

One woman recounted that a disabled girl residing in the same camp as her had “disappeared for seven hours” and returned crying. Though her family initially thought she had been lost, they realized two months later that she had been raped and was pregnant.

“They still don’t know who did it,” she said.

The displacements had also reportedly led to misinformation, further complicating family life. One woman said she was aware of a woman who was told her husband was “martyred.” Her family refused to take her back, so she married her husband’s brother only to later learn, when she was pregnant, that her husband had survived and she had unknowingly committed adultery, which can lead to both religious stigma and legal consequences.

The report also alleged sexual misconduct by IDF soldiers at checkpoints, though none of the quotes provided in the UNFPA report indicated that the women who spoke at the center claimed to have personally experienced or witnessed such abuse.

“My neighbor told me that during displacement, she passed a checkpoint. She was with her son and daughter… the soldier told her to leave her daughter and go. She started crying and begging the soldier to let her daughter go [with her], but he threatened to kill her son if she didn’t leave. Against her will, she continued on her way,” one woman said. “[Later], she waited for her daughter. When she saw her alive, she was happy. But when [her daughter] arrived, she said she had been harassed. The soldiers said vulgar things to her and touched sensitive parts of her body.”

Another woman alleged that a relative of hers was forced to remove her niqab at a checkpoint and ordered at gunpoint to lift her upper clothing in front of other Palestinians being evacuated.