Security incidents and shellings are hampering UNRWA’s ability to respond to the needs of Palestinian refugees inside Syria.

DAMASCUS/AMMAN/GENEVA, 17 May 2013 – Despite heavy fighting, UNICEF and partners have provided life-saving supplies over the last week to some of the hardest to reach areas in Syria, including Aleppo and Al Houla, as well as children and women who fled recent violence in Al Bayda and Baniyas.

UNICEF and partners reached Zamarin and surrounding areas, on the outskirts of Tartous, which is hosting some 6,000 women and children who fled the nearby villages of Al Bayda and Baniyas, where mass killings have reportedly taken place this month.

IOM provides assistance to internally displaced persons, stranded migrants and third-country refugees inside Syria as well as Syrian refugees, Iraqi and Lebanese returnees and vulnerable host communities in the neighbouring countries of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

IOM Regional Response to the Syria Crisis Situation Report - 16 May 2013

Campaign calls attention to humanitarian tragedy

Cologne. On Thursday, 16 May, Malteser International’s website will go dark in solidarity with the Syrian people. 28 German-based international organizations have united to call attention to the plight of Syrian refugees and the large-scale humanitarian tragedy taking place in the region.

As part of our nearly $510 million in humanitarian aid to help those affected by the crisis in Syria, wheat recently provided by the United States will feed more than one million people in Syria for four months.

In 2012, Sweden was the third largest bilateral humanitarian donor in the world after the United States and the United Kingdom. Since 2005, Sweden's humanitarian aid contributions have risen from SEK 3.3 billion to over SEK 5 billion in 2012.

An additional €65 million will assist four million people who have been forced to flee their homes and in neighbouring countries that have generously welcomed some 1.4 million refugees.

The distribution will continue for the next few days 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.

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