The Holy Land has seen its first heavy snowfalls since 2004, causing widespread disruption, blocked roads and several injuries.
Snow began falling Wednesday morning in the Golan Heights and the Hebron area. It reached Jerusalem on Wednesday evening and continued through the night.
Eight centimeters (3 to 4 inches) of snow fell in Jerusalem, according to Israeli online media network Arutz Sheva. Motorists in the Israeli capital had to drive slowly due to ice, and bus services were disrupted.
Snow also fell in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where members of the Palestinian presidential guard were seen playing snowballs.
In southern Israel, several Bedouin were injured when their tents collapsed due to the stormy weather. Police officers took a pregnant Bedouin woman to safety after the tent in which she lived collapsed, Israeli daily Jersualem Post reported. Police evacuated over 100 other residents of the isolated encampment for the duration of the storm, amid fears that further tents would collapse.
The extreme weather caused other injuries around Israel, according to Israeli media reports. A man was swept away in his car by floods near Jerusalem, and in the northern city of Acre, an elderly woman was evacuated to hospital with light injuries after a eucalyptus tree fell on her, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile a 19-year-old man in the town of Tiberias was seriously injured when he was hit by a marble tile that fell off a building, Arutz Sheva reported.
However, the stormy weather also had its advantages. Uri Shore, a spokesman for Israel's Water Commission, told the Jerusalem Post that the sudden heavy rainfall was "excellent" for the country. Israel needed the rain "badly," he said, after parts of the country had gone 38 days without it and underground water reserves had become depleted.
dgs/ap
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