“The humanitarian community has stressed time and time again that people must not be denied life-saving help and that the fighting has to stop,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in a statement.

Humanitarian agencies have been denied access to Moadamiyeh for months, the statement noted. Although the evacuation of more than 3,000 people took place today, the same number or more remain trapped. There are reports of continued shelling and fighting in the area, preventing the completion of the rescue operation.

“I call on all parties to agree an immediate pause in hostilities in Moadamiyeh to allow humanitarian agencies unhindered access to evacuate the remaining civilians and deliver life-saving treatment and supplies in areas where fighting and shelling is ongoing,” said Amos, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Those already evacuated from Moadamiyeh received immediate assistance from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, UN humanitarian agencies and partners, local businesses and private individuals, including food, medical treatment and psycho-social support.

Amos said she continues to be “extremely worried” by the situation unfolding across Syria where ordinary women, children and men are facing horrific violence and brutality from all sides of the conflict.

Thousands of families also remain trapped in other locations across Syria, for example in Nubil, Zahra, old Aleppo town, old Homs town and Hassakeh.“Civilians must be allowed to move to safer areas without the fear of attack,” stressed Amos.

“It is vital that all parties to the conflict respect their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian laws to protect civilians and to allow neutral, impartial humanitarian organizations safe access to all people in need, wherever they are in Syria.”

The conflict, which began in March 2011, has claimed over 100,000 lives, sent more than 2 million people fleeing for safety to neighbouring countries and displaced 4.5 million within Syria.

“Large numbers of refugees from Syria arrive every day with their lives torn apart and Jordan continues to receive and care for them,” said World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim. “That sort of generosity needs our support, and we are pleased to offer this urgent assistance.”

The Emergency Project to Assist Jordan Partially Mitigate Impact of Syrian Conflict was approved by the World Bank Board of Governors on Thursday July 18, 2013. It will focus on support for the healthcare system, under strain from a steep increase in demand, and to households facing rising prices for food and housing due to the larger number of consumers. The project will be implemented under the Bank’s new emergency procedures for Investment Project Financing, which allows for accelerated approval and disbursement in cases of emergency, natural or man-made disasters or conflict.

Inger Andersen, the Bank’s Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa region, visited Jordan in May for a first-hand look at the severity of the situation. She toured Mafraq in the north, where large numbers of Syrian refugees have sought refuge in the town itself and at the nearby Zaatari refugee camp. “I saw Jordan’s generous hosting communities struggling with the enormous inflow of people seeking shelter and protection. And at Mafraq I saw municipalities bursting at the seams,” she observed. “There is acute pressure on local authorities to maintain service delivery and that is where our funding can help.”

There are stresses on health and education services and on water, sanitation and electricity supplies. It is expected that by the end of the year, there will be one Syrian in the country for every six Jordanians. Competition for jobs has driven wages down, while prices have risen for basic necessities, fuel and rental accommodation.

US$50 million of the project’s funds will go toward supplies of vaccines and medicines for the growing population, with US$20 million to relieve the pressure on the government’s budget for the provision of medical services to Jordanians, and the remaining US$80 million to ensure Jordanians have affordable access to basic commodities such as bread and cooking gas.

In addition to the project approved today, a follow up operation will help leverage donor support to strengthen local governments’ service delivery and shore up the capacity of municipalities hosting refugees.

“The World Bank’s contribution is part of our broader program of engagement with Jordan in which we are helping build resilience to the current and future impacts of the regional crisis, while keeping and strengthening our support to the country’s ongoing economic reform program,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank Country Director.

“We had hoped we would not have to do it again, but today we are asking for $4.4 billion for the whole of 2013,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in a joint press conference with other UN officials in Geneva.

“That’s more than half the combined total of all of our other appeals which cover 16 countries from Afghanistan through to Somalia,” she said.

The appeal, revised from $1.5 billion in January, covers relief activities for the Syria Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (SHARP) and the Regional Response Plan (RRP).

Of the $4.4 billion, $1.4 billion will go to SHARP, assisting Syrians inside Syria, and $3 billion to RRP, which provides life-saving aid and protection to refugees in the immediate surrounding region. So far, $1.2 billion have been received.

In addition to this, the Governments of Lebanon and Jordan are seeking $450 million and $380 million, respectively, to support the efforts to provide education, health and other services to the refugees who are now in their countries.

“We estimate that 6.8 million people now need urgent help. That is one in three Syrians in need of urgent humanitarian assistance,” Ms. Amos said, adding that between January and April, the number of people displaced in Syria more than doubled. “These are massive figures, but those figures mask a human tragedy.”

Since March 2011, fighting between the Syrian Government and opposition forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad has killed more than 80,000 people. In addition, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that some 1.6 million Syrians have fled their country to escape conflict, but notes that this number quickly escalating.

“We expect that we might reach 3.5 million refugees by the end of the year,” High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres told reporters. “The funds we are appealing for are a matter of survival for suffering Syrians and they are existential for the neighbouring countries hosting refugees.”

Mr. Guterres underlined that more than half of the refugees fleeing Syria are children, and noted that many are starting to show signs of moderate to acute malnutrition.

The appeal includes $1 billion that would enable the World Food Programme (WFP) to scale up its distribution of food both inside and outside Syria. The agency currently distributes food to more than 800,000 people outside Syria and an additional 2.5 million inside the country. With additional resources, the agency said it hopes to reach a total of 7 million Syrians by late 2013.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing ready-to-eat food rations and high-energy biscuits to families who were forced to flee Baniyas and surrounding villages on Syria’s Mediterranean coast to Tartous city.

WFP aims to distribute supplied to more than 10,000 people – mainly women and children – in gathering points and shelters in communities such as Zamrin, Breej and Mrah, near Tartous city. Following the emergency ration, families will be given WFP’s regular food basket which includes rice, bulgur, sugar, pasta, vegetable oil and lentils.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), images of piles of bloodied and burned bodies, including of small children and babies, have been emerging – allegedly taken after Government forces and militia overran al-Baida and other parts of Banias last week.

WFP warned that ongoing classes on the main route between Tartous and the capital, Damascus, would significantly disrupt the movement of WFP cargo to the agency’s warehouse in the capital city. This poses a great risk as more than 60 per cent of all food stored in that warehouse – enough for one million people – arrived from Tartous Port through the Damascus-Homs highway, which was witnessing heavy fighting.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is supplying hygiene and children’s clothing to the displaced families through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. In a briefing to reporters in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado said three trucks were also heading from Damascus to Tartous to distribute hygiene kits, clothing and high energy biscuits.

Ms. Mercado also drew attention an increasing number of damaged or destroyed schools in the country. According to the ministry of education, there are now over 2,960 damaged and destroyed schools out of a total of over 22,000 schools in Syria. Some 1,400 schools are being used as shelters, and 222 education staff had been killed.

She added that next week UNICEF will deliver 10 prefabricated schools to Adra in rural Damascus and one school in Damascus, the first installment of a total of 104 pre-fabricated schools provided to meet the huge demand for safe placed to learn across the country.

Haralambos Pantelidis, told SKAI that Greek authorities were working with officials in Turkey, to deal with the potential influx of Syrian refugees crossing the neighboring country.

Greek Public Order and Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Dendias announced last week that 1,800 additional officers had been ordered to the border with Turkey. Greece currently has around 600 border guards in the area, according the Panhellenic Association of Border Guard Officers. Dendias also said 26 floating barriers will be placed along the Evros River that divides Greece and Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Greek border guard officers’ association has complained that the decision to increase border patrols is inadequately planned and will have little results unless dozens of immigrant detention centers are built first.

Until now there is no significant number of Syrians making the  1,400 kilometer trek across Turkey to Greece but the Greek government has been conducting a crack down on illegal migration in general, especially as the country faces an economic crisis and an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent.

Greece is the busiest entry point for illegal immigrants trying to reach the European Union. Turkey, meanwhile, is hosting thousands of Syrians who have fled their country’s violence.

Turkey is currently home to more than 50,000 refugees living in camps along the Syrian border.
 The UN announced on Friday that there were more than 6,000 new arrivals in Turkey this week alone, many from the Syrian city of Aleppo and surrounding villages, while others came from Idlib and Latakia.

“There is major concern,” Dendias said when asked about the situation in Syria, where rights activists estimate more than 21,000 people have been killed since a popular uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in March 2011. ”Our aim is to put an end to Greece’s” porous frontier, Dendias aadded.