On May 29, the Associated Press published an article alleging that acute poverty has forced families in the Gaza Strip to marry off their prepubescent daughters to stave off hunger and financial ruin.
This “new” trend insinuates that it’s caused by the devastating war Palestinian Arabs in Gaza have suffered because of … the excessive destruction wrought by Israel in its battle against Hamas. Unfortunately for AP’s journalistic integrity, the story is full of holes.
First, the article mentions a significant increase in child marriages in the years during the war, but provides no concrete evidence tying this increase to the dire situation in the Gaza Strip.
Second, AP cites no data on how many young girls are married off under normal circumstances, or that Gaza law permits marriage for girls as young as 9. In fact, data shows—but again the media outlet doesn’t mention—that although the rate of child marriages did increase during the war between Hamas and Israel, there was a greater increase more than four years before the war began.
Third, the implication that Israel’s actions to stop Hamas’s bloodthirsty bombings and terrorist murders of Israeli citizens are somehow to blame for Gaza’s poverty is absurd. After all, Hamas started the war by carrying out the atrocities against communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Moreover, Hamas exacerbates Gazans’ suffering by using them as human shields, stealing humanitarian aid and brutally slaughtering anyone who challenges their authority.
Lastly, the AP article fails to mention the significant prevalence of child marriage in Muslim countries, where women are often treated as little more than property of men. Why? Because the article isn’t really about the girls or Gaza’s poverty. It’s about the ogre: Israel.
It claims that “The devastation that Israel’s campaign has wreaked in Gaza has helped fuel an increase in marriages of young girls, according to experts and official data.” However, the piece fails to provide any factual evidence tying increased child marriages to Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
Instead, the article relies on testimony from six underage girls and their parents. Clearly, the AP intends these Gazans’ stories to tear at readers’ heartstrings—to evoke a negative view of the Jewish state. However, the anecdotes in no way prove that Israel is responsible for underage girls being forced into marriage.
A longstanding tradition
Indeed, according to the article, the minimum age for marriage for girls is 17, “with some exceptions allowed.” These exceptions allow a girl to be married as young as 9.
Surveys, interviews and studies by local organizations such as the Women’s Affairs Center in Gaza and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFP) indicate that child marriages among Palestinians occur mainly because of customs and traditions, rather than economic factors. A 2021 study of 406 married girls in Gaza, for example, found that the reasons for child marriages were overwhelmingly cultural, with 83% citing strict conservative family norms, 74% social norms and 53% religious beliefs.
AP does provide evidence that child marriage in Gaza has increased during Israel’s war with Hamas, noting a 2.8% rise in the number of child brides in 2024 and 2025. However, it didn’t mention that there was an even greater increase of 3.2% from 2018 to 2019, years before Israel’s post-Oct. 7 war against Hamas.
Why? Because it doesn’t fit the leftist narrative that Israel is the root of all evil in Gaza.
Hamas started this current war, and indeed, launched every war in Gaza since violently taking over the territory in 2007. If Hamas had not committed the Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 others, there would have been no war and no resulting devastation in Gaza. The real cause is just another bad choice on the part of Palestinian leaders.
Nonetheless, the AP article holds Israel responsible for the Gazans’ suffering. For instance, the piece says, “Israeli restrictions on aid drove Gaza’s population to the brink of famine at times.”
Actually, Israel allowed a massive amount of aid into Gaza, and is still doing so. About 600 to 800 trucks now enter Gaza daily, carrying food amounting to more than five times Gaza’s internationally defined nutritional requirements. In short, there has been no famine there.
Furthermore, the AP article neglects to mention Hamas’s theft of humanitarian aid during the war, their use of human shields or their penchant for ruthlessly murdering their opponents in cold blood. It doesn’t mention any of this because it would implicate Hamas as responsible for Gazans’ misery, rather than Israel.
Child marriage is common in Muslim countries
In fact, seven of 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are Muslim-majority nations. Islamic sharia law, as interpreted by many Muslims, sanctions marriage for minors, drawing on the example of the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha, who was just 9 when her marriage to the Muslim prophet was consummated.
Under Sharia, women are often treated as little more than property. For instance, in many cases, fathers are allowed to marry off their young daughters without their daughters’ consent. Men may marry multiple wives, but women can’t have multiple husbands, and a male guardian (wali) is often required to permit a woman’s marriage.
Surely, a story on the factual prevalence of child marriage in Gaza and other Muslim countries would highly interest readers, but, of course, such coverage would undermine AP’s anti-Israel narrative.
Nowadays, when it comes to Israel, many journalists resort to unabashed slander of the Jewish state, rather than report the facts as ethical journalism requires.
This AP article is just one example of the prevalent trend of discrediting Israel. It joins journalistic hoaxes such as Nicholas Kristoff’s article in The New York Times that accuses Israel of using dogs to rape Palestinian male prisoners. In short, a huge portion of coverage on the Middle East in mainstream media now involves some attempt to denigrate the Jewish state.
Originally published on Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).
