UN declares 'major humanitarian emergency' over spreading Middle East conflict
The affected regions already host nearly 25 million people as refugees, internally displaced people, or refugees who have recently returned from abroad.
The United Nations refugee agency has declared the crisis in the Middle East to be a major humanitarian emergency, and has insisted that all civilians fleeing the conflict should be granted safe passage.
UNHCR said the Middle East crisis — which began on Saturday when Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran and has spread since — had already caused large numbers of people to flee their homes.
"UNHCR has declared the escalating crisis in the Middle East as a major humanitarian emergency requiring an immediate response across the region," Ayaki Ito, the agency's emergency chief and its cross-regional refugee coordinator, told a press briefing in Geneva on Friday.
"The recent escalation of hostility and attacks in the Middle East has triggered significant population movements - while clashes along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan have also forced many thousands of families to flee," he said.
Millions of refugees
The affected regions already host nearly 25 million people as refugees, internally displaced people, or refugees who have recently returned from abroad, said Ito.
He said the UNHCR was trying to get life-saving assistance into affected countries across the region.
Ito said it was imperative that all civilians who need to move, or cross borders, "find safety and safe passage".
Fresh strikes rocked Iran and Lebanon on Friday, as Israel vowed to escalate to a new phase in the Middle East war that has spiralled rapidly throughout the region and beyond.