The conference will address the funding gaps for the Syria Regional Response Plan and the Syria Humanitarian Response Plan, which together seek $1.5 billion to help Syrian refugees as well as those in need inside the country, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Most of the money would help support the more than 540,000 refugees who have fled to Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt. Many of those refugees are enduring frigid conditions in tents as a winter storm pounds the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres says that people seriously wounded in bombings and other fighting can count on a dwindling number of places to get help. The group detailed the work of one of its teams that traveled to the northern city of Idlib, which has been attacked repeatedly by government forces.

Another ballistic missile launched inside Syria

NATO detected the launch of an unguided, short-range ballistic missile inside Syria on Wednesday, the alliance said Thursday. It said similar launches took place January 2 and 3.

The missiles struck northern Syria, NATO said.

"The use of such indiscriminate weapons shows utter disregard for the lives of the Syrian people," NATO said in a statement. "It is reckless and we condemn it."

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday that Patriot missile batteries recently moved to Turkey's border with Syria to repel any such missiles would stay there only as long as there is a threat, the semi-official Anadolu News Agency reported.

Davutoglu was responding to questions from members at an Istanbul Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Davutoglu added that the number of Syrian refugees inside Turkey has reached 152,000 and vowed to "stand by Syrians who are being oppressed."

The crisis started in March 2011, when peaceful protesters demanding democracy and reforms were met by a fierce government crackdown, which spiraled into an armed opposition movement and a civil war.

At least 46 people -- three of them women -- were killed Thursday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.

The toll is lower than it has been in recent days, perhaps because cold weather and snow has descended on much of the region.

In response to the weather, the Turkish Red Crescent Society on Thursday sent nearly 625 tons of flour to Syrians who face a shortage of bread.