Snow carpeted Jerusalem and the eastern Mediterranean Thursday as a rare storm turned the holy city into a winter wonderland but brought misery to the region's Syrian refugees.

The cold snap, which has already caused major disruption in Athens and Istanbul, saw heavy snowfall in areas better known for their summer heat.

In the alleyways of Jerusalem's walled Old City, children pelted each other with slushy snowballs after the first flakes fell late on Wednesday.

By morning, snow crowned the golden-tipped Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa mosgue compound, Islam's third holiest site, and carpeted the esplanade in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray.

Israel's meteorological service reported that between 15 and 25 centimetres (six and 10 inches) of snow had fallen overnight.

It took until midday for snow ploughs to reopen the main highways leading into Jerusalem from the north, south and west.

Schools in Jerusalem and northern Israel were closed, leaving children free to play in the snow, which was not expected to last as temperatures rose and rain fell.

The Israel Electric Company reported that power consumption reached an all-time high overnight as Israels switched on the heating.

Snow also covered higher ground in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority closed schools and some public services.

In neighbouring Jordan, heavy snowfall closed roads in the capital Amman and made driving conditions treacherous across much of the country.

Jordan's Meteorological Department forecast more snowfall on higher ground with temperatures expected to fall below freezing again on Thursday night.

Egypt recorded its coldest winter in a decade, with temperatures as much as seven to eight degrees below the seasonal average.

The storm whipped up waves of nearly six metres (20 feet), disrupting shipping in the eastern Mediterranean, the meteorological office said.

- 'Sick and barefoot' -

In Syria, days of heavy snowfall blanketed displaced persons' camps in the rebel-held northwest where families huddled together under canvas in temperatures well below zero Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).

"We've been trapped in the snow for four days," said Abu Hussan, who lives with his family in a makeshift camp outside the city of Jisr al-Shughur.

"We have no shoes. We are soaked with water. The children are sick and walk barefoot. They have nothing."

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said this week that at least 227 displacement sites across the northwest have been hit by severe winter weather since January 18.

"545 tents have been reported destroyed and 9,125 tents damaged by snowfall, floods and winds, along with belongings of displaced people," it said.

In crisis-hit Lebanon, refugees and Lebanese alike struggled to secure fuel for heating as severe weather blocked mountain roads and left Syrian refugees shivering in flimsy tents.

In the small Mediterranean country, where economic crisis has driven more than 80 percent of the population into poverty, fuel prices have skyrocketed after the cash-strapped government lifted subsidies last year.

Conditions have been particularly severe in the town of Arsal, high in the mountains on the Syrian border, where Lebanese families and some 70,000 Syrian refugees have been struggling to cope with the cold.

"Most of the people can't afford fuel for heating," Arsal mayor Basel Hujeiri told AFP.

Greek capital digs out of snow chaos
Athens (AFP) Jan 27, 2022 - Athens inched back to normal on Thursday after a snowstorm paralysed roads for days as recriminations raged over closures and outages that left up to 200,000 homes and businesses without power.

Shops and the capital's main ring road reopened early Thursday after what officials described as a "super-human" effort to clear some 3,000 vehicles trapped in the snow since Monday.

But state offices and schools remained closed, operating remotely, following a two-day public holiday called in Athens and other badly hit regions of Greece on Tuesday and Wednesday to keep people indoors.

Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said fewer than 1,000 homes in the greater Athens area remained without power on Thursday, compared to 200,000 homes and businesses that experienced blackouts from Monday, when the snow first struck.

Municipal crews were clearing snow and fallen tree branches from side streets in neighbourhoods of Athens, home to nearly four million people, on Thursday.

Greeks have expressed outrage and disbelief at authorities' inability to clear roads and restore power earlier in more than a dozen Athens districts.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday offered a "personal and sincere apology" and said "lessons" would be drawn from the snowstorm, rare in Greek cities.

On Tuesday, a homeless man died of heart failure attributed to sub-zero temperatures in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

On Thursday, residents in semi-rural suburbs east of Athens battled blackouts and supply shortages for a fourth straight day.

"Do they want to find us frozen stiff? We have no heating, no food. Shame on them. If they had any decency, they should all resign," a woman in the suburb of Peania told state TV ERT.

On Tuesday, the chief executive officer of the private-run Attiki Odos ring road resigned, and the company has offered 2,000 euros in compensation for each stranded vehicle.

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Istanbul permits first flights after snow pummels Mediterranean
Istanbul (AFP) Jan 25, 2022
Europe's busiest airport in Istanbul welcomed its first flight in 24 hours on Tuesday and Greece declared a public holiday as the eastern Mediterranean neighbours began digging out of a rare snowstorm that ground their capitals to a halt. Turkish officials ordered all private vehicles off the snow-clogged streets of Istanbul while the Greek military joined rescuers in trying to evacuate hundreds of stranded drivers in Athens. Major highways were closed across both countries and basic services su ... read more