Attachments
REGIONAL OVERVIEW
101 Women & Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) closed in the last 12 months due to funding gaps and insecurity.
18M+ Women and girls at heightened risk of GBV across the region.
226 GBV organisations delivering life-saving response services.
$70M Needed urgently to reopen WGSS and sustain GBV services.
The February 2026 airstrikes on Iran triggered a rapid escalation of risks across the region, intensifying gender-based violence (GBV) exposure in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while further degrading already fragile protection systems and service delivery structures. What was already a region that is home to several of the world's most acute protection crises has deepened considerably in a matter of weeks.
Across the region, more than 161 million women and girls reside in countries directly affected by the conflict. Over 18 million women and girls and, increasingly men and boys, across Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Syria are exposed to heightened GBV risks, driven by displacement, insecurity, and the progressive breakdown of protective environments. Within this, adolescent girls, female headed households and women and girls with disabilities face compounded and often invisible risks due to entrenched gender norms, economic dependency on males, exclusion from information and services, and reduced mobility
GBV incidents remain significantly underreported due to stigma, fear of retaliation, and the risks associated with accessing services. Concurrently, access to lifesaving GBV services is increasingly constrained by insecurity, internal and cross-border population movements, and the disruption, reduction, or absence of specialized service provision in multiple locations. The contraction of livelihoods and income-generating opportunities is further increasing exposure to GBV, reinforcing cyclical patterns of vulnerability. While conflict-related sexual violence remains a critical concern, there is also documented increase in other forms of GBV, including intimate partner violence and early and forced marriage, which are expanding in both scale and complexity.
In Lebanon alone, internal displacement has surpassed one million people. Cross-border movement between Lebanon and Syria has also intensified sharply, with more than 130,000 recorded entries into Syria in the same period. In Iraq and Yemen, populations with prolonged prior exposure to conflict are again facing the risk of renewed airstrikes and displacement. In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, populations continue to experience ongoing bombardment alongside severe constraints in access to essential goods, including water, food, and shelter. These population movements are occurring within already weakened protection environments, further increasing exposure to GBV risks for women and girls.