People of the Palestinian territories—the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—are bound by differing laws that handle marital unions on the basis of the couple's national status and religious affiliation.
After the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, which saw Israel capture the Palestinian territories from Jordan and Egypt, those original laws largely remained in place.
Since the beginning of Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967, all of the territory's Jewish settlements have been subject to Israeli marriage law.
[1] The Palestinian National Authority, which was established by the Oslo Accords in 1994, continues to apply a modified version of the original Jordanian marriage law throughout the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem and Jewish settlements.
The Palestinian Qadi al-Quda issued an administrative decision in 1995 raising these ages in Gaza to a minimum of 15 for a female and 16 for a male,[7] which aligned with the Jordanian law which applied to the West Bank.
[11] It's estimated that 30% of married women in the West Bank and 50% in Gaza will be subjected to domestic violence, and less than 1% will seek the help of a social worker, a shelter, a civil-society organisation or the police.
[17] After being annexed by Jordan in 1950, the 1960 Jordanian penal law Article 308, which contained a similar provision, has applied in the West Bank.
"[18] An activist campaign put pressure on the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who eventually signed Law no.