The U.N. chief's Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Philippe Lazzarini, has lamented that the response of the international community to the needs of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and other countries is weak.

In an interview with An Nahar daily published on Wednesday, Lazzarini said: “The response does not meet the needs.”

Hanna Yussef dreams of following thousands of fellow Iraqi Christians to refuge in Europe, abandoning a precarious existence in Jordan, where he has lived since fleeing Islamist violence at home.

But he's staying put for now because he can't afford the money needed for the perilous crossing by sea and, equally as important, because he can't swim.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has said that the Syrian refugee crisis has had very harmful effects on Lebanon's security and economy.

“This crisis had catastrophic effects on security, development, the economy, the society and the environment,” Bassil said in a speech he gave at the Group of 77 and China meeting that was held in New York.

European Union leaders, who will gather for an emergency summit on the migration crisis on Wednesday, are expected to give extra funding to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and U.N. agencies.

The leaders are hoping that the funding would help stop the flow of refugees to Europe.

Germany's interior minister on Monday urged Europe to pick up refugees directly from crisis regions, to help them bypass traffickers who charge huge sums for dangerous journeys to the continent.

"I suggest we agree on a generous quota in which we take refugees from crisis regions to Europe without allowing people smugglers to profit from it," said Thomas de Maiziere at a press conference in Berlin, adding that he was expressing a personal view.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Saturday called for United Nations countries to contribute an extra five billion euros ($5.65 billion) in aid for refugees living in camps in Lebanon and Jordan.

"We have to help countries where the misery is so great that people are going on the road," Gabriel said, in reference to the tens of thousands of migrants -- many of them Syrian refugees -- who have headed to Europe in recent months.

Thousands of migrants sought their way through a chaotic maze of rumor and proliferating border controls in the western Balkans on Saturday.

In the latest chapter in the EU's escalating refugee crisis, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia tussled over how to cope with a wave of refugees desperate to reach northern Europe.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has praised Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey for taking in millions of refugees from the war in Syria, which is now in its fifth year.

“Lebanon is hosting Syrian refugees equal in number to 25 per cent of its population,” Ban told a news conference on Wednesday less than 10 days before world leaders gather at the U.N. Headquarters in New York for general debate of the 70th session of the General Assembly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday announced a toughening of the penalties for stone throwers following a third day of clashes in and around Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Young Palestinian demonstrators threw stones at Israeli police who had entered the compound in large numbers and responded with stun grenades in fresh clashes Tuesday despite international calls for calm.

Jordan's king warned Israel on Monday that any further "provocation" in Jerusalem where Israeli police have clashed with Muslims at al-Aqsa mosque would damage ties between the two countries.

"Any more provocation in Jerusalem will affect the relationship between Jordan and Israel" which have a 1994 peace accord, said King Abdullah II following a second day of clashes at the flashpoint holy site in annexed east Jerusalem.