“The continued failure by parties to the conflict to protect civilians across Syria means that women, men, and children continue to be killed, injured and displaced across the country,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said in a statement.

She urged commitment by all parties “to stop actions that result in loss of civilian lives, to allow access for aid organizations, and to respect their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law,” Amos noted, adding that she and colleagues in the humanitarian and human rights community have publicly and frequently called for the violence to stop.

Amos noted that hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, injured or taken hostage in attacks in Homs, Aleppo and other areas of Syria in the last two days alone.

Aid officials – at risk to their own lives – are trying to get to civilians caught in the fighting, Amos said.

“They need our support to be able to safely reach all people in need, wherever they are in Syria,” she urged. “Their job is to be neutral and impartial and it remains vital that efforts to provide humanitarian aid are separate from political agendas.”

Meanwhile, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) urged “immediate safe access” to families caught in the fighting in Al Waer neighbourhood of Homs where some 400,000 people are believed to be living in partially constructed buildings, schools and other public buildings.

UNICEF has been aiding partners to distribute nutrition and basic hygiene supplies and clean water, but new checkpoints are preventing more supplies from entering the area.

“We call on all parties to facilitate immediate safe access to these families so we can provide life-saving assistance, and to allow those families currently trapped in Al Waer who wish to leave to do so in safety and in dignity,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement.

“Cannot all those involved agree that the innocent women and children in Homs, and across Syria, should be spared all possible suffering?”

Lake said the situation of women and children in Homs “is rapidly deteriorating” with reports of intense daily clashes, and rocket and mortar strikes causing many casualties.

Water and electricity are still available but vegetables, milk and other essentials are in increasingly short supply. UNICEF warned that its own emergency supplies “will run out within days”.

Some 5,000 people are killed monthly in the conflict, and an average 6,000 flee every day from the country, according to the UN figures presented last month to the UN Security Council.

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced. In addition, at least 6.8 million Syrian require urgent humanitarian assistance, half of whom are children.

“The humanitarian situation in Aleppo is desperate,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Yoka Brandt, who visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, last week. “Our goal is to reach children who most need our assistance, no matter where they are.”

The delivery, carried out by UNICEF, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other UN agencies, consisted of a 15-truck convoy that travelled from Damascus to Aleppo. UNICEF’s supplies included diarrhoeal disease kits to treat 30,000 people, medical kits for 20,000 people, 2,000 family hygiene kits, cooking stoves, high energy biscuits and school supplies.

UNICEF also delivered five generators and eight water tanks that will provide safe drinking water to more than 1 million people in Aleppo. The installation of these generators has already begun, the agency said in a news release.

Aleppo, which has been difficult to access due to insecurity and fighting, has the highest number of affected people in the country – at least 2.4 million people. According to UNICEF, half of these are children.

“Humanitarian needs, especially for food, water and shelter, are very severe,” said Ahmedou Bahah, who accompanied the convoy as head of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme in Syria.

According to UNICEF, living conditions, especially in the worst affected areas, have become deplorable. Prices have tripled or quadrupled, and families are struggling to provide their children with basic supplies including bread, vegetables and fruits, milk, yogurt and eggs.

Since the beginning of the year, UNICEF has participated in 20 UN convoys, 15 of which were to areas controlled by opposition groups. Through these and other missions, UNICEF and its partners have provided 10 million people with access to safe drinking water, vaccinated 1.5 million children, enrolled more than 300,000 children in schools and supported more than 450 school clubs where children receive the support needed to overcome some of the horrors they have witnessed.

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced. In addition, at least 6.8 million Syrian require urgent humanitarian assistance.

Assad’s comments came in a pre-recorded interview with al Manar television, a Lebanese satellite television station affiliated with Hezbollah.

Dozens of Hezbollah militants are said to be fighting alongside Syrian forces in Qusayr the since May 19, when government forces launched an offensive to recapture the strategic town near the Lebanese border. Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry said thousands of Hezbollah fighters were contributing significantly to the conflict in Syria.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said earlier this week that Hezbollah would fight in Syria until Assad’s survival was assured.

Assad, however, downplayed Hezbollah’s presence in Syria in his interview, saying that the number of fighters the Lebanese group had sent to his country was a “drop in the ocean” compared with the “hundreds of thousands” of Syrian government troops fighting against rebels.

“Logically speaking, if Hezbollah or the resistance wanted to defend Syria by sending fighters, how many could they send – a few hundred, a thousand or two? We are talking about a battle in which hundreds of thousands of Syrian troops are involved against tens of thousands of terrorists.”

Reports have said up to 4,000 Hezbollah fighters have joined forces with the Syrian military, which has claimed to be winning the battle, Al Jazeera said.

He noted that the timing of the Qusayr battle is linked to the “Israeli escalation”.

President Bashar al-Assad also said Syria would be willing to attend peace talks with the opposition in principle with the condition that anything agreed upon would be subject to the approval of the Syrian people through a referendum.

“Simply put, our only condition is that anything agreed upon in any meeting inside or outside the country, including the conference, is subject to the approval of the Syrian people through a popular referendum. This is the only condition. Anything else doesn’t have any value. That is why we are comfortable with going to the conference. We have no complexes. Either side can propose anything, but nothing can be implemented without the approval of the Syrian people. And as long as we are the legitimate representatives of the people, we have nothing to fear.”

Assad was referring to talks, backed by Russia and the US  next month in Geneva. Peace talks aim at finding a political solution to the country’s civil war.

On the other hand, the National Coalition said it will not take part in would not participate in the Geneva talks until the international community intervened to end a siege in Qusayr, a town in Homs province near the Lebanese border.

With the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and other UN agencies, UNICEF brought to Aleppo four trucks filled with 89 medical kits, 2,000 family hygiene kits and 2 resuscitation kits along with 1,000 towels, 48 boxes of soap, summer clothing and school supplies.

“The situation is extremely difficult because of the conflict,” said Ettie Higgins, Deputy Representative, UNICEF Syria, after returning to Damascus from Aleppo on Thursday. “But UNICEF continues to work around the clock and with partners to ensure that children, no matter where they are, and who live in the most difficult and horrendous circumstances, are reached with life-saving support.”

In a separate mission, nine trucks filled with emergency medical supplies, food, 1,000 family hygiene and 500 baby kits, along with some 160 school-in-a box supplies and 900 bottles of shampoo arrived in Talbiseh, benefiting over 55,000 people.

“I will never forget how happy children were when they saw the trucks of supplies arriving, and especially when they first saw the educational materials for them,” said Abdul Kadir Musse, Chief of the UNICEF Homs Field Office, noting that mothers had been particularly pleased to see the medicine for their children.

Living conditions inside Syria, especially in the hardest hit areas, have become increasingly desperate. Children continue to bear the brunt of the crisis, as violence and the level of destruction escalate. Many hospitals, schools and homes have been destroyed, more than 4 million people have been internally displaced, half of them children, with many living in over-crowded and unsanitary conditions.

Despite obstacles on the ground and funding shortages, UNICEF and partners continue to deliver assistance for the children inside Syria and the over 600,000 more who have fled to neighbouring countries.

If confirmed, it would be the first use of such weapons in the two-year-old conflict.

Syria’s information minister al-Zoubi said rebels had fired a rocket carrying chemical agents that killed 25 people and injured over 100.

The minister blamed ‘terrorists’ for firing a rocket with chemical substances  in al-Neirab on Khan al-Asal in Aleppo in what he called a “dangerous escalation” and held the countries that are arming syria’s opposition responsible for the attack in Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Russia’s ministry said in a statement: “This incident constitutes a very worrying and serious development in the context of the crisis in Syria.”

However, a Free Syrian Army commander denied media reports on Tuesday that opposition forces were behind the chemical weapon attack in Aleppo, accusing the regime, according to AP.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, put the number of dead at 26, including 16 regime soldiers.

President Bashar Assad, battling a two-year-old uprising against his rule, is widely believed to have a chemical arsenal.

Syrian officials have warned that if it existed it would be used to defend against foreign aggression, not against Syrians.

Meanwhile, the White House says it has no evidence to back up Bashar Assad’s claim that Syrian rebels have used chemical weapons.

US President Barack Obama, has previously warned Assad that any use of chemical weapons would be a “red line”.

On ground, Syrian rebels on Tuesday seized a guard post near the Jordanian border and a tank brigade headquarters in the south of the country, after regime forces withdrew, the Syrian observatory for Human Rights reported, according to Al Arabiya.

Research carried out inside Syria in the last fortnight confirms that government forces continue to bomb civilians indiscriminately often with internationally banned weapons, flattening entire neighbourhoods. Detainees held by these forces are routinely subjected to torture, enforced disappearances or extra-judicial executions.

“While the vast majority of war crimes and other gross violations continue to be committed by government forces, our research also points to an escalation in abuses by armed opposition groups,” said Ann Harrison, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“If left unaddressed such practices risk becoming more and more entrenched – it is imperative that all those concerned know they will be held accountable for their actions.”

Our research has once again demonstrated that the Syrian government is using internationally banned weapons against civilians.

On 1 March, an Amnesty International researcher in Aleppo found nine cluster bombs that had been dropped from a fixed-wing aircraft on to a densely populated housing estate.

More than a dozen residents were killed and scores more injured, many of them children.

A resident from the al-Dik family told Amnesty International how his relatives were killed in the attack: “Inas, 2, Heba, 8, Rama, 5, Nizar, 6, Taha, 11 months, Mohammad, 18 months. They were all killed; why? Why bomb children?.”

As always with such attacks, the site was left littered with unexploded bomblets, which will continue to kill and maim those who pick them up – often children.

Nearby, the arm of a child was recovered from beneath the rubble of a neighbourhood flattened by a long-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile fired from government forces hundreds of kilometres away.

Hundreds of residents, many of them children, were killed and injured in three such recent attacks which wiped out entire families.

Sabah, a 31-year-old woman who survived the carnage told Amnesty International about her loss: “My daughters, Isra’, Amani and Aya, aged 4, 6 and 11, my husband, my mother, my 14-year-old sister Nour, and my other sister’s three sons, Ahmad, Abdallah and Mohammad, aged 18 months, and 3 and 4 years. They were all killed, what is left for me in this life?.”

Thousands have perished across the country in recent months in similar attacks by government forces with weapons which should never be used in civilian areas.

Elsewhere in Aleppo, the bodies of men and boys – shot in the head, hands tied behind their backs – are recovered almost daily from the river.

The bodies float downstream from a part of the city under the control of government forces.

Among the victims found in the first week of March were a 12-year-old boy and his father; they, like others identified so far, had disappeared in a government-controlled area of the city.

A video from another part of the country shows a boy apparently aged between 12 and 14 holding a machete standing over a man – later identified as Colonel ‘Izz al-Din Badr.

He lies prostrate on the ground with his hands behind his back. A voice in the background shouts: “He doesn’t have the strength.” The boy brings the machete down on the man’s neck, cheered on by members of an armed opposition group.

“Children in Syria are being killed and maimed in increasingly large numbers in bombardments carried out by government forces. Many have seen their parents, siblings and neighbours blown to pieces in front of them. They are growing up exposed to unimaginable horrors,” said Harrison.

In an area in southern Damascus, witnesses described a “hole of death” – where armed opposition forces are believed to have dumped the executed bodies of pro-government fighters or those suspected of being informers.

In another case, an Amnesty International researcher was told how a man accused of being a collaborator was found after being killed by an opposition group.

A neighbour told Amnesty International: “We immediately went there and found him on a heap of waste, with a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead, a firearm injury to the shoulder…His knee was broken…A brown card hung on him with the words ‘collaborator (awayni), Colonel Helal Eid’.”

According to the UN, more than two million civilians have been internally displaced. Having fled their homes, many now face renewed shelling and bombing in the areas in which they sought shelter and have been displaced a second time.

Turkey has partially closed its border leaving thousands of internally displaced people stranded on the Syrian side in appalling conditions.

“With every passing hour of indecision by the international community, the death toll rises. How many more civilians must die before the UN Security Council refers the situation to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court so that there can be accountability for these horrendous crimes?” said Harrison.

“This shipment is very timely as supplies of chlorine in Syria have fallen dangerously low, making access to safe water challenging for many families,” said Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, UNICEF Representative in Syria.

“This puts the population – and children especially – at high risk of contracting diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases.”

The first four trucks carrying 80 tons of sodium hypochlorite water chlorination supplies crossed the Jordanian border into Syria on Sunday, heading for Aleppo, Hama, Idleb and Homs. Approximately 420,000 people – half of them children – need urgent humanitarian aid in Homs, UNICEF said last week, following a recent inter-agency mission to the country.

Over the coming weeks, UNICEF, in coordination with the technical department of the Ministry of Water Resources and the Syrian Aran Red Crescent, will deliver 1,000 tons of chlorine to cities and communities across all 14 governorates in Syria.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has co-signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to provide $2.1 million worth of essential medicines, vaccines and medical equipment. As many as three million Syrians will benefit from the donation, which will cover a one-year period starting this month.

A shortage of medicines in Syria is becoming more critical, as is waste management and the availability of safe drinking water, WHO has said. Poor hygiene is increasing the risk of infectious diseases such as lice, hepatitis A and leishmaniasis, a sore-causing disease transmitted by sandflies.

More than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in early 2011. Recent months have witnessed an escalation in the conflict, which has also left more than four million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

The international community has committed more than $1.5 billion for humanitarian aid to Syrians. Supporting reconstruction of critical infrastructure, such as water pumping stations, and providing essential relief supplies like medicines are among the top four priorities inside the country, along with helping people who have fled their homes and the communities hosting them and helping the poorest avoid total destitution.

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the appalling attack,” a spokesperson for the UN chief said in a statement.

“It is truly shocking and distressing to see so many young people dedicated to pursuing their education in the midst of strife lose their life to senseless violence,” the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, said in a news release.

Two explosions ripped through the university, Syria’s oldest institution of science and technology, on Tuesday, reportedly killing at least 82 people and wounding more than 160 others. According to reports, the bombs went off as students were taking exams, and it remains unclear who was responsible for the attacks.

“Deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian targets constitutes a war crime. Such heinous attacks are unacceptable and must stop immediately,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said. “All combating parties in Syria must abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

Both Ms. Bokova and Mr. Ban expressed their condolences over the attack, with the UNESCO chief calling on “all those involved in the fighting to respect the right to education” and the Secretary-General believing that “this latest atrocity should be promptly and fully investigated.”

“He also calls for a reflection by all Syrians about the degradation of a conflict that is tearing their nation apart, and stresses the urgent need for a peaceful political solution that ends the violence and meets the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson added.

More than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in early 2011. Recent months have witnessed an escalation in the conflict, which is now in its 23rd month.

Meanwhile, the UN agency tasked with assisting Palestinian refugees called on all sides in the conflict in Syria to refrain from taking up positions in or conducting the conflict in civilian areas.

In a statement, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) appealed to the parties “to ensure the protection of Palestine refugees, other civilians and their property and to comply with their obligations under international law.”

The UNRWA statement also called for respect for “the sanctity of human life,” noting that there was a “duty to avoid arbitrary displacement of civilians.”

The UN agency is particularly concerned about the conflict’s impact on Palestinian refugees in all areas of Syria, including those living in Damascus, Rif Damascus, Dera’a, Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Homs. UNRWA noted that its concerns are deepening with reports of serious incidents which continue to occur, including in areas under the control of armed opposition elements.

In mid-December 2012, the conflict saw intense armed engagements inside Yarmouk, a suburb south of Damascus, which housed more than 150,000 Palestine refugees. This was followed by the incursion of armed opposition elements into Yarmouk and their taking up of positions in this civilian residential area, in turn attracting a military response more intense than previously seen.

“This has brought new highs of suffering to Palestinian and Syrian residents of Yarmouk who had already endured, since July 2012, the trauma of protracted conflict in their neighbourhood,” UNRWA said in a news release. “Since mid-December 2012, the Yarmouk experience has been played out sequentially in other areas of Rif Damascus.”

The UN estimates that the overall number of people in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria quadrupled between March 2012 and December 2012, from one million to four million. UN humanitarian aid planning estimates that up to a million Syrian refugees will need help during the first half of 2013, with most of these located in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt.

The “Friends of Syria” conference where more than a hundred government delegates have gatrhered including Greece, US, Britain, France and Gulf countries in the Moroccan city of Marrakech as rebels intensify their push on Damascus.

A draft declaration at the meeting states that the members of the Friends of the Syrian People bloc were prepared to recognise the opposition coalition as “the legitimate representative of the Syrian people”. It also called on President Asad to “stand aside” in order to allow “a sustainable political transition” process.

France, Britain, Turkey and the Gulf states have already granted the oppositon formal recognition. The European Union, in a meeting on Monday, moved a step closer towards recognition. The EU currently recognises the coalition as “legitimate representatives of the aspirations of the Syrian people,” which falls short of recognising it outright as a potential successor government.

Greek foreign minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos has also traveled to Morocco to attend the conference according to an announcement by the ministry of foreign affairs. Mr. Avramopoulos in a recent statement reiterated Greece’s firm stance in favor of the pursuit of a political solution and the opening of a dialogue that will enable the Syrian people to decide on their future. He stressed the need for an immediate stop to the hostilities and the importance of protecting the rights and security of all the Syrian communities, making express reference to Syria’s Christian population and Greek Orthodox community, in light of the latter’s recent loss of their spiritual leader.

Meanwhile, a day before the conference in Morocco, Barack Obama, the US president, announced that his government would be recognising the coalition as Syria’s “legitimate representative” mounting pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In an interview on ABC news Obama announced that, “We’ve made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population, that we consider them the legitimate representative of the Syrian people in opposition to the Assad regime.”  It’s a big step,” Obama added.

His announcement stopped short of authorising the US to supply weapons to the opposition, however.

According to Al Jazeera, fighting has intensified in recent days, with rebels claiming they have taken over a large military base near the city of Aleppo, and both sides trading mortar and artillery fire in southern Damascus.

Addressing journalists in Geneva, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Melissa Fleming, said the agency had delivered aid packages to 59,000 families, thereby helping 295,000 people.

“The emergency packages contain non-food humanitarian supplies ranging from blankets and clothing to cooking kits and jerry cans,” Fleming said. “These are aimed at helping families meet basic needs during the coming winter.”

Fleming also highlighted the rising challenges faced by UNHCR’s 350 Syria-based staffers, who operate from offices in the capital, Damascus, Aleppo in the northwest, and Hassakeh in the northeast.

“Unfortunately, recent deliveries have been very difficult,” Fleming said. “Last week, humanitarian operations were disrupted on at least two days in Damascus because of insecurity,”

She added, “Similar difficulties were experienced by staff working in Aleppo, and we are temporarily withdrawing staff from north-eastern Hassakeh governorate.”

UNHCR aims to provide aid to 500,000 internally displaced Syrians by the end of the year, amid the violence that UN estimates say has killed at least 20,000 people, mostly civilians, since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 20 months ago, and rendered some 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

The refugee agency is also committed to helping Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries, where the number those who are registered or awaiting registry has now reached 407,000, and, said Fleming, “continues to climb.”

Amongst the challenges faced by UNHCR and its partners in Syria is the danger posed by the ongoing violence – hostile actions in recent days have led to the loss of large numbers of blankets destined for Syrians driven from their homes by fighting.

Fleming said 13,000 blankets burned when a mortar shell struck the Syrian Red Crescent-owned warehouse storing them in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the scene of intense fighting over many months.

She added that “unknown people” hijacked a truck carrying another 600 blankets to Adra, a town on the outskirts of Damascus. Despite the challenges and setbacks, Ms. Fleming said “progress has been made.”

“Yesterday, we were able to deliver nearly 5,000 mattresses and 500 hygiene kits to Aleppo, Hassakeh and Adra,” she said. “We also continue with the provision of education materials and cash assistance for families.”

According to Fleming, UNHCR gave individual school kits to 10,500 displaced children in Hassakeh, while almost 12,100 displaced families in a section of Rural Damascus and in Hassakeh Governorate received an allowance of $150 per family.

The UNHCR spokeswoman warned that that current refugee counts would climb as “tens of thousands” of Syrians who’ve fled their homeland present themselves for registration and assistance.

“Many are expected to come forward… in the coming weeks, as winter sets in, and their resources run out,” she said.

New arrivals have crossed the borders into Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, though the influx of displaced Syrians into Lebanon “remains stable,” Fleming noted, adding that work was underway in several refugee camps to improve conditions and prepare for winter.

In Turkey, an estimated 115,000 Syrians were in 14 government-run camps, with another 60,000-70,000 believed to be living “on the local economy,” Fleming said.

She highlighted that the arrival of 4,045 new refugees in Jordan last week marked the “highest weekly total” since 1 September for that country. The influx brought the number of refugees registered or awaiting registration in Jordan to more than 116,000, while more than 70 percent were living on the local economy.

Syrian Kurds made up most of the 3,171 new arrivals in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region in the week before 7 November, Ms. Fleming noted. Some 50,000 Syrian refugees were now in Iraq.

In Lebanon, UNHCR is stepping up its efforts to register refugees, dispatching mobile teams to reach people in remote areas, Ms. Fleming said. A total of 118,633 are now registered, or awaiting registration.

Separately, in Lebanon, the UN Special Coordinator for the country, Derek Plumbly, today paid tribute to UNHCR’s work in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city, which he visited today.

After meeting with political leaders and the Mufti of Tripoli and the North, Sheikh Malek El-Shaar, Mr. Plumbly said in remarks to the media that he “welcomed the recent calm in the city,” but also stressed the responsibility of “all concerned” to avoid a return to violence.

The conflict in Syria recently re-ignited political and sectarian violence in the city, according to media reports.