Food For Sex, Women Pressured To Do Sexual Acts, Became Pregnant: Gaza Women Break Their Silence On Shocking Abuse

In a war-ravaged Gaza, where food is scarce and survival has become a daily struggle, women say desperation has turned them into prey for men linked to aid distribution. Behind the walls of displacement camps and broken homes, a disturbing pattern is emerging: food, money, or a promise of work, in exchange for sex.

One 38-year-old mother of six thought she had found relief when a man offered her a job with an aid agency. Instead, he lured her to an empty apartment. “I had to play along because I was scared, I wanted out of this place,” she spoke with the Associated Press. He handed her some food and 100 shekels roughly $30 but the job never came. Her story mirrors those of other women who spoke of being coerced into sexual encounters as hunger consumed their families.

Gaza horrors: “Let me touch you.”

Some women recall blunt offers: “Let me touch you.” Others say the abuse was hidden in cultural language: “I want to marry you.” Psychologists in Gaza say they have treated dozens of women pressured into sexual acts for aid some left pregnant, many too afraid to speak publicly because of stigma in Gaza’s conservative society. “Before the war, exploitation reports happened once or twice a year, but now they’re up dramatically,” said Amal Syam, director of the Women’s Affairs Center.

The women’s accounts point to a horrifying reality: war doesn’t just destroy homes it strips dignity. “It’s a horrible reality that humanitarian crises make people vulnerable in many ways increased sexual violence is often a consequence,” said Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch. Aid groups and rights advocates note that this kind of exploitation has been documented in conflicts from South Sudan to Haiti, and Gaza is no exception.

Shocking details from Gaza

Six relief organisations, including the Palestinian Women’s Affairs Center and the UN-linked Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) network, say they are aware of such reports. The PSEA recorded 18 allegations of sexual abuse tied to aid in Gaza last year, but experts fear the real number is far higher. “The data often shows just the tip of the iceberg,” said coordinator Sarah Achiro.

Some women have tried to report abuse. A 35-year-old widow said she received repeated late-night calls from a man wearing a UNRWA uniform after she gave him her number at an aid site. The calls quickly turned sexual. When she complained, she was told she needed recordings as proof something her phone could not provide. UNRWA insists its policy requires no such proof and that it maintains zero tolerance for exploitation.

But fear silences most victims. “I told myself that no one would believe it,” said the mother of six who was tricked into an apartment. In a besieged land where over 90% of the population is displaced and nearly all rely on humanitarian aid, many women carry this trauma quietly, unseen their hunger exploited, their dignity stolen.

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