One woman said she was given a six month contract with UNRWA after being pressured to sleep with an aid worker.
Some Palestinian men have been exploiting the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, using resources as a way to pressure women into sexual interactions they would not have otherwise consented to, six local women told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
The women, who remained anonymous due to fears of retribution from the men or their own families, told AP that some of the men were associated with humanitarian aid groups, such as UNRWA.
A 35-year-old widow reported giving her number to a worker while receiving aid from UNRWA, which resulted in her receiving late-night phone calls. While the conversation began as harmless, she described how it quickly devolved into him questioning her on the color of her underwear and whether her husband had satisfied her. He asked her to come to him for sex, which she refused, and she said she never received any humanitarian aid.
While the woman submitted a complaint to the UN agency, she stated that she was informed she needed to have a recording of the call to have it further investigated – a requirement that was not possible with her older phone model and contradicted the agency’s own policy.
UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told AP that the UN agency has a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment and doesn’t require proof, though wouldn’t say if staff were aware of the widower’s complaint.
A damaged sign is pictured at the headquarters of UNRWA following an Israeli raid in Gaza City, on July 12, 2024. (credit: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)
The UN received 758 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by staff in 2023, together with related personnel and partners, according to a March 2024 release. One hundred allegations were reported in peacekeeping and special political missions.
Of the 143 victims identified, 28 were children, and the large majority of cases (90%) occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The PSEA network, which UNRWA belongs to, said that it received 18 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation linked to receiving humanitarian aid in Gaza in 2024.
One 38-year-old woman was referred by a friend to a man in November, after being told he would provide her with food and potentially offer her a job. The man was said to have promised her a six-month contract with an aid agency.
However, instead of driving her to an office in his UN-marked vehicle to sign paperwork, he reportedly transported her to an empty apartment. It was here that he instructed her to remove her hijab. While she recounted how he said he wouldn’t force her to have sex with him, he stated that she would not be allowed to leave apartment until she did.
“I had to play along because I was scared, I wanted out of this place,” the woman told AP.
The aid job eventually materialized after she saw him again in December as a six-month contract for UNRWA. He also gave her NIS 100 and a box of food and medicine a few weeks after their first sexual interaction.
“I told myself that no one would believe it,” she said. “Maybe they would say I am only saying this so that they would give me a job.”
“It’s a horrible reality that humanitarian crises make people vulnerable in many ways — increased sexual violence is often a consequence,” Heather Barr, associate director for the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, told AP. “The situation in Gaza today is unspeakable, especially for women and girls.”
Some of the women interviewed by AP described being propositioned multiple times by different aid workers.
A 37-year-old mother of four told AP that she was approached twice, once by the head of a shelter who offered her food and accommodation if she would “go together somewhere together.” Understanding the request was sexual, she refused.
Another mother of four complained of an aid worker offering to only give her children nutritional supplements if she married him. After refusing and blocking him, the aid worker began harassing her with calls from different numbers and made vulgar comments.
“I felt completely humiliated,” she said. “I had to go and ask for help for my children. If I didn’t do it, who would?”
Five of the women who shared their stories with AP denied engaging in sexual interactions with the men, but local psychologists warned that many women had. Four local psychologists also told AP that dozens of women had told them of sexual exploitation and several had become pregnant as a result of the abuse.
AP’s findings follow a June 2024 report by the Global Protection Cluster (GPC), a group of NGOs and UN agencies based in Geneva, alleging sexual abuse of vulnerable populations by aid workers in Gaza.
Alleged misconduct by aid workers included violence, exploitation and abuse, trafficking, and forced prostitution, GPC stated in its report.
‘Prefer to keep the focus’ on Israel
“Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip and the restrictions on humanitarian aid are what’s forcing women to resort to this,” said Amal Syam, director of the Women’s Affairs Center.
Israel and the United States have expanded efforts to see aid enter the Gaza Strip and bypass Hamas, as the terror group has repeatedly been accused of stealing resources as a means of wealth.
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has received notable pushback from groups like the United Nations, though, despite authorities regularly pointing to the UN’s own inadequacy in delivering aid to the Gaza Strip.
Israel has shared footage of UN aid piling up on the Gaza border, and the group has admitted to having trucks filled with resources robbed at gunpoint.
One volunteer, named only as Syam, who works for the Women’s Affairs Center, said that Palestinian women preferred to focus only on Israel. “Most of us prefer to keep the focus on the violence and violations committed by the Israeli occupation,” she said.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
