A bruising winter storm has brought severe weather to the Middle East, forcing the closure of roads and schools and blanketing already miserable Syrian refugee camps with snow.
The nearly three-year-old conflict in Syria has killed an estimated 126,000 people and displaced millions of others, including more than two million who have fled across the borders and thousands who are living in makeshift camps.
Footage posted online by activists showed war-battered areas of Syria shrouded in snow, and at least two small children have died from the cold, according to a spokesman for the opposition National Coalition.
The inclement weather also delayed the first-ever international UN airlift, set to fly from the Kurdish region of northern Iraq to the town of Qamishli in northeastern Syria.
"When it will start is difficult to say - I think the authorities in Qamishli are going to check conditions at the airfield on Friday," UN refugee agency (UNHCR) regional spokesman Peter Kessler told AFP.
Heavy snow in Turkey forced the cancellation of scores of flights and caused major disruption to road and sea traffic.
More than 800,000 Syrians have fled to neighbouring Lebanon since the civil war erupted nearly three years ago, many sheltering in tents and unfinished buildings.
The UNHCR said it was working with the Lebanese army to distribute blankets and provide money for heating fuel.
In the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon where most of the tent camps are concentrated, temperatures were expected to drop below freezing overnight.
Residents of the sprawling Zaatari camp in northern Jordan, home to 120,000 Syrian refugees, fared slightly better as the storm brought heavy rains but no snow.
Authorities said they have set up 20,000 caravans, but that thousands of people are still in tents.
Elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, temperatures plunged and heavy snow fell at higher elevations, including in Jerusalem, where schools were closed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a planned reception for the foreign press due to "inclement weather".
In the Gaza Strip, which has been in the grip of a fuel crisis that has affected hospitals, sanitation services and sewerage, torrential rains filled the streets with floodwater and overflowing sewage, and forced the closure of schools and banks.
