Yes, homosexuality is illegal in Gaza for men. Sexual acts between men are a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison under a British colonial-era criminal code that has stayed on the books since 1936, and the written penalty is only part of the risk: Hamas security forces, informant networks, and families themselves operate a layered system of punishment that often never touches a courtroom.1The Palestine Gazette. Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936
What the Law Actually Says
The operative statute is the British Mandate Criminal Code Ordinance No. 74 of 1936. Section 152(2) makes it a felony for any person to engage in sexual intercourse “against the order of nature” or to permit a male person to do so, carrying a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.1The Palestine Gazette. Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936
The provision targets acts involving men. Female same-sex conduct is not addressed by the statute, which offers women no practical safety given the social and familial consequences they still face. No Gazan law recognizes same-sex relationships, bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, or creates any route to civil unions or partnerships.
Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007 and has not replaced the British-era code on sexual offenses. The colonial statute sits alongside customary norms and religious interpretations that reinforce it, so the criminalization of male homosexuality is both formal and culturally entrenched.
The West Bank Is a Different Legal Regime
The picture is not uniform across the Palestinian territories. In the West Bank, the Jordanian Penal Code of 1951 applies, and that code contains no prohibition on consensual same-sex acts between adults. Legal practitioners there have confirmed that no court cases prosecuting homosexuality have been recorded under Jordanian law. A gay man in Ramallah faces a fundamentally different legal situation than one in Gaza City.
The absence of criminal penalties in the West Bank is not social acceptance. LGBTQ+ Palestinians in both territories face stigma, family rejection, and the threat of violence. But the statutory difference is real, and it matters.
How Enforcement Works in Practice
The written sentence is the beginning, not the end. The U.S. State Department has documented “crimes involving violence and threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons” by Hamas authorities.2U.S. Department of State. West Bank and Gaza Strip 2022 Human Rights Report
People suspected of same-sex conduct face arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention without formal charges. Human rights observers describe aggressive interrogations designed to extract confessions and the names of other LGBTQ+ individuals. Detainees have reported physical abuse, humiliation, and being held in stress positions for extended periods. These are not judicial proceedings with defense attorneys and transparent hearings; they operate largely outside any formal legal process.
Security forces also conduct raids on private homes and gathering places based on rumors or tips from informants. The practical effect is that the ten-year prison sentence in the code is almost beside the point. The real danger comes before anyone sees the inside of a courtroom.
Surveillance, Entrapment, and Coerced Informing
Digital spaces that LGBTQ+ people elsewhere rely on for connection become traps in Gaza. Security agents and informants monitor social media platforms and dating apps to identify people seeking same-sex relationships. Targets are lured into meetings that end in arrest or threats of exposure. Even private messaging carries risk, with intelligence actors documented using Instagram and Facebook to build rapport with targets before pivoting to interrogation or demands for information.
Extortion is a common outcome. Once identified, a person can be forced to pay money, provide sexual favors, or act as an informant against other LGBTQ+ individuals. The threat of being outed to family or authorities is leveraged to compel cooperation. Some victims are coerced into spying on acquaintances, searching homes, or gathering intelligence on people of interest to security services. Blocking a threatening account offers no protection; threats continue through other channels, including direct messages to the victim’s family and social circle. Private conversations and images have been sent to families as punishment for refusing to cooperate.
Family and Community Punishment
Family honor is a governing principle in Gaza’s social life, and the behavior of each member reflects on the household. Discovery of a person’s homosexuality can bring intense shame on the family and lead to ostracism within the community. Families sometimes respond with forced isolation, physical violence, or complete abandonment. The 2022 murder of Ahmad Abu Markhiya, a young gay Palestinian man in the West Bank, drew international attention to the risk of honor-based killing across the territories.
This parallel enforcement operates independently of Hamas security forces. Parents and siblings may feel compelled to punish a family member to demonstrate adherence to community values, with no involvement from the authorities. For many LGBTQ+ people in Gaza, the family itself is the most immediate and inescapable source of danger.
Formal support systems are virtually nonexistent. No LGBTQ+ civil society organization can function openly in the territory without placing its staff at severe risk, which leaves people with nowhere to turn when family rejection or violence occurs.
Healthcare and Transgender Exclusion
Even before the current conflict, LGBTQ+ individuals struggled to access sexual health care. HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy were available in only a tiny fraction of health institutions, and stigma around both HIV and homosexuality discouraged people from seeking care. The war that began in October 2023 destroyed most of that limited capacity. By early 2026, the overwhelming majority of hospitals had been damaged or destroyed, and shortages of antiretroviral medications, destroyed laboratories, and disrupted follow-up have made consistent HIV care nearly impossible.
Transgender individuals face an additional layer of exclusion. Gender-affirming healthcare is effectively unavailable in Gaza. No clear legal process exists for changing a name or gender marker on official documents, and a 2012 religious ruling explicitly prohibits gender-affirming medical procedures for transgender people while permitting them for intersex individuals under specific conditions. Transgender people are not explicitly criminalized under the British Mandate code, but they can be prosecuted under the same public morals or sodomy provisions used against gay men.
What the War Has Changed
The conflict that began in October 2023 has made an already desperate situation worse. Mass displacement, the destruction of private homes, and the collapse of social networks have stripped away the few hiding spaces LGBTQ+ individuals relied on. In a territory where survival depends on proximity to family and community, people who were already marginalized within those structures face compounded vulnerability.
Overcrowded shelters and tent camps offer no privacy. People who maintained a careful separation between their public and private lives have lost the physical spaces that made it possible. The breakdown of communication infrastructure has also cut off access to remote support from organizations outside Gaza, and the scale of the humanitarian crisis means that LGBTQ+ concerns receive almost no attention from aid groups focused on food, water, and medical emergencies.
Leaving Gaza and Claiming Asylum
For LGBTQ+ Palestinians who manage to leave, international refugee law offers a theoretical pathway to protection, but the practical obstacles are substantial. The 1951 Refugee Convention recognizes persecution based on membership in a “particular social group,” which international jurisprudence and UNHCR guidance have interpreted to include persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Courts in the European Union, the United States, and elsewhere have granted asylum on these grounds.
Palestinians face a specific complication. Article 1D of the Refugee Convention excludes people already receiving protection or assistance from UN agencies other than UNHCR. Because Palestinians in Gaza fall under the mandate of UNRWA, Israeli and some other authorities have argued the convention does not apply to them. In practice, the vast majority of Palestinian asylum applications have been denied or never processed. An Israeli district court has acknowledged that Palestinians persecuted for their sexual orientation should be permitted to file asylum applications, but that ruling has not translated into systematic access to protection.
Reaching a country where a claim can be filed also requires crossing borders that have been largely closed to Gaza residents for years. The current conflict has made exit nearly impossible for most people. Those who do get out still have to prove persecution in systems that may not understand the specific dynamics of Gaza, while carrying the weight of what they experienced before leaving.