Hamas urging women to have more children to create a larger army.

Hamas urging women to have more children to create a larger army. HT: New scientist.

The population density of the Gaza Strip has been disputed, but in comparison with other cities, Gaza City, with a population of around 750,000, is undoubtedly a densely populated urban area.

This goes some way to explaining the high numbers of casualties in the current conflict. Some 63 Israelis and about 1460 Palestinians have died since the current conflict started a month ago, with children accounting for at least 245 of the deaths. But why so many children? It turns out that there are unusual features about the population structure in Gaza that make it an enigma in the modern world.

First, the Gaza Strip's population of roughly 1.8 million has an unusually large proportion of children. Figures for 2013 from Index Mundi, the internet source of country data, show that that 43.5 per cent of the population is aged 14 or under, compared with 32 per cent in Egypt and 27 per cent in Israel.

The median age in Gaza is 18, compared with a world average of 28. In most European countries it's about 40, and it is 30 in Israel. Only in a dozen or so African countries is the median age lower, reaching 15 in Uganda.

The data from Index Mundi show that the fertility rate in Gaza, 4.4 children per woman, is among the highest in the world.

"Palestinian women are not having lots of children because they don't know about contraception, or can't access contraception," says Sara Randall, an anthropologist at University College London, who co-authored the 2006 investigation. "So one has to conclude that they actually want lots of children."

"In a situation where disempowerment, underemployment and marginalisation have left few opportunities for expression of identity, reproduction is one of the few liberties which remains, and also contributes to the larger goal of increasing the Palestinian people," it says.

Pedersen says that a sense of duty to expand the population is a factor that can't be dismissed. "There have been statements from Hamas urging women to have more children to create a larger army," he says.

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