The age of consent in Palestine is not set by a single law. In the West Bank, the Jordanian Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 criminalizes sexual intercourse with any female under 18 who is not the offender’s wife, which makes 18 the effective threshold.1United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Penal Code No 16 of 1960 In Gaza, the British Mandate Criminal Code Ordinance No. 74 of 1936 still applies, and it contains no general age-of-consent provision at all.2International Committee of the Red Cross. Criminal Code Ordinance 1936 The same act can therefore be prosecuted very differently depending on which side of the territorial divide it happens on.
The West Bank: Effective Age of 18
The Jordanian Penal Code uses a tiered structure based on the victim’s age. Article 292 punishes rape of a girl under 15 with the death penalty. Article 294 criminalizes sexual intercourse with any female between 15 and 17 (other than the offender’s wife) and sets a minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. Together, the two articles cover everyone under 18, which is why 18 functions as the age of consent in practice.
Penalties climb when the offender holds a position of trust. Under Article 295, the minimum sentence rises to ten years if the offender is a relative, guardian, employer, or member of the clergy and the victim is between 15 and 17. Courts can also strip the offender of custody rights over the victim.
Indecent acts short of intercourse fall under Article 296. Minimum sentences scale by age: four years where the victim is an adult assaulted against their will, five years for a victim between 15 and 17, and seven years for a victim between 12 and 14.
Gaza: No Clear Age-of-Consent Rule
Gaza’s framework is far weaker. The 1936 Criminal Code Ordinance does not contain a blanket age-of-consent article. Instead, it addresses specific situations.
Article 152 punishes rape (intercourse by force, threats, or where the victim is unconscious) with up to 14 years’ imprisonment, regardless of the victim’s age. Article 153 punishes rape by deception with up to 10 years. These are general rape provisions, not age-of-consent provisions.
Article 155 covers a narrower scenario: sexual intercourse with an unmarried girl above 16 who is the offender’s descendant, ward, or someone entrusted to the offender for education or supervision. The penalty is five years. It reaches only offenders in those particular relationships with the victim.
A United Nations study noted that the 1936 code “does not provide any protection for girls under the age of 16” outside the general rape provisions, and even for those over 16 the protection is limited to specific relationships of trust.3UNESCWA. Palestine – National Legislation Review That gap has not been closed by later legislation.
The Marriage Exception
Article 294’s phrase “other than his wife” matters. A valid marriage removes the husband’s conduct from the reach of the age-of-consent provisions, even if the wife is under 18. That makes the minimum marriage age part of the same question.
A Presidential Decree issued on November 4, 2019, raised the minimum marriage age to 18 for both men and women across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.4UN Women Arab States. Palestine Summary – Gender Justice Report 2019 Before that decree, the West Bank followed the Jordanian Personal Status Law of 1976, which set marriage age at 15 for girls and 16 for boys, while Gaza followed the Egyptian-adopted Law of Family Rights of 1954, which allowed even younger marriages.5DCAF. Palestinian Women and Personal Status Law
The 2019 decree allows exceptions, but only with approval from the Chief Justice of the Sharia courts. Practice still diverges from the written rule. As of 2020, roughly 13.4 percent of women in the Palestinian Territories had been married before turning 18, with rates reaching 18.3 percent among the poorest households.6UNICEF. State of Palestine – Child Marriage Data Portal Every underage marriage that goes forward removes that minor from the criminal law’s protection against sexual offenses by the spouse.
Repeal of Article 308
Until 2018, Article 308 of the Jordanian Penal Code allowed a rapist to escape punishment by marrying the victim, and it applied in the West Bank. The 1936 code used in Gaza had an equivalent provision. On March 14, 2018, President Mahmoud Abbas signed Law No. 5 of 2018, which repealed Article 308 in the West Bank. Jordan had repealed its own version in August 2017, but that change did not carry over automatically; the Palestinian Territories run their own legislative process.
Under the old rule, families often pressured victims into marrying their attackers, and courts accepted the marriage as grounds to drop charges. After the repeal, prosecutors can pursue sexual offense cases regardless of whether a marriage follows.
Honor-Based Sentence Reductions
One older escape route still exists. Article 98 of the Jordanian Penal Code grants mitigating circumstances to anyone who commits a crime while provoked by a “sufficiently serious” act by the victim. Palestinian courts have historically applied it to reduce sentences for so-called honor killings to as little as six months, and an OHCHR study found that courts relied on Article 98 rather than the more explicit Article 340, which was suspended by presidential decree in 2011 but had rarely been used in practice.7OHCHR. Murder of Women in Palestine Under the Pretext of Honour
Jordan amended Article 98 in 2017 to exclude crimes committed against women from the “fit of fury” defense. The Palestinian Authority has not adopted an equivalent amendment. Article 98 remains available to defendants in the West Bank, including in cases connected to sexual offenses.
Why the Rules Differ by Territory
The split reflects history rather than design. When the British Mandate ended in 1948, Jordan administered the West Bank and Egypt administered Gaza, and each imposed its own legal code. Jordan’s Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 replaced earlier Ottoman and Mandate law in the West Bank. Gaza kept the 1936 ordinance. No unified Palestinian penal code has since replaced either system. A sexual offense in Ramallah is prosecuted under one statute; the same offense in Gaza City is prosecuted under another, older one with narrower reach.