A regime offensive in southern Syria has forced more than 270,000 people from their homes, the United Nations said Monday.
The number of people forced to flee their homes in southwestern Syria as a result of the two week escalation in fighting has climbed to more than 270,000 people, the United Nations said.
The UN said last week 160,000 had been displaced as they fled heavy bombardment and mostly took shelter in villages and areas near the Israeli and Jordanian borders.
"Our latest update shows the figure of displaced across southern Syria has exceeded 270,000 people," Mohammad Hawari, UNHCR's Jordan spokesman told Reuters.
The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the southwest caused by the fighting that erupted after a Russian-backed Syrian military offensive to recapture rebel-held southern province of Daraa.
Jordan, which has taken in more than half a million displaced Syrians since the war began, and Israel have said they will not open their borders to refugees.
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters on Monday after a meeting with UN officials that shipments of aid were waiting to get approvals to enter into Syria from the Jordanian border.
Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz visited the key crossing with Syria on Sunday, inspecting aid deliveries by the Jordanian army to the displaced Syrians.
Jumana Ghunaimat, spokeswoman for Jordan's government, briefed reporters after the prime minister's visit, defending Jordan's position not to open the border to the fleeing refugees.
"Jordan has priorities ... its security and safety in the first place and secondly easing its economic crisis," she told the reporters.
