Syria 'faces deepening catastrophe'

Syria and the surrounding region face a deepening humanitarian catastrophe, according to a new report.

The near two-year uprising and civil war has brought the Middle East into a new "human displacement tragedy", says the International Rescue Committee's Commission on Syrian Refugees.

"Current assistance levels are drastically insufficient to address existing needs, let alone the barest requirements to respond to a lengthy humanitarian emergency and post-conflict recovery," the humanitarian organisation says in its report Syria: A Regional Crisis.

More than 600,000 Syrians have fled so far to overburdened neighbouring countries, and the United Nations anticipates the figure could soon exceed one million if the exodus continues at its current pace of about 3,000 refugees a day, the IRC says.

Inside Syria, more than two million civilians are displaced and the UN estimates that four million are in dire need of assistance.

The report says Syrian civilians are struggling to survive in communities besieged by violence, chaos and destruction.

Supplies of food, water and electricity have sharply dwindled, sanitation in many areas has halted, increasing the threat of disease, yet medical care has become scarce.

Partner organisations that provide emergency medical services and supplies say the health care system has been decimated.

Physicians described "a systematic campaign to restrict access to life-saving health care through the strategic bombing and forced closure of hospitals and health care facilities" and "intimidation, torture and the targeted killing of doctors and other medical staff in retribution for treating the wounded".

The report also details horrific levels of sexual violence, describing rape as "a significant and disturbing feature of the Syrian civil war." In the course of three IRC assessments in Lebanon and Jordan, Syrians identified sexual violence as a primary reason their families fled the country.