<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">UN has said intense fighting in southwestern Syria has displaced an estimated 270,000 people.  </span></div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Many of the displaced are stranded near the closed border with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Deraa and urged neighbouring countries to provide safe passage to those wishing to flee the violence. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Jordan has kept its border closed and said it could not cope with taking in any more than the 660,000 registered refugees it already hosts.</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Israel has said it will not allow Syrians to cross into its territory. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Over the weekend, more than a dozen towns and villages agreed to surrender and accept President Bashar al-Assad's rule. </div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br />''</div>''<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, more than 130 civilians have been killed since the military launched an assault on rebel-held areas.  <br />''</div>