A fierce winter storm has shut down much of the Middle East, burying Jerusalem in snow, flooding parts of Gaza and bringing frigid, wet weather to war-ravaged Syria.
The hilltop city of Jerusalem was paralysed on Friday by its fiercest snowstorm in years, with its mayor calling out the army to help stranded motorists and authorities urging residents to stay indoors.
"We are battling a storm of rare ferocity," Mayor Nir Barkat said as snow in the Holy City piled up to around 37 centimetres and thousands of homes lost power.
Main roads into the city, which climb around 795m above sea level, were closed and police appealed to drivers not to attempt the journey.
Temperatures in the city were predicted to reach a high of two degrees Celsius during the day and drop below freezing later, with the snowfall that started Thursday continuing into Saturday.
Ramallah and Bethlehem, Palestinian cities near Jerusalem, were also coated in snow and some lower-lying areas suffered flooding from heavy rain.
The Gaza Strip was lashed by torrential rain for a third day, and its Hamas rulers said that residents had been evacuated from 60 flooded homes since storms hit the coastal territory on Wednesday.
The severe weather prompted Israel to open the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid following a UN request.
In Syria, meanwhile, a child and a baby were said to have died from the cold on Thursday, and an activist in a besieged rebel-held town said residents were struggling to stay warm with the electricity cut off and no food or fuel allowed in.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) had to delay its first planned international aid airlift into Syria a second day but said weather conditions there were improving.
The agency hopes to fly in some 40 metric tonnes of aid from northern Iraq.
Farther east, blizzards left thousands of drivers stranded in Iran.
