causing power cuts and closing highways. Police and army units are on standby for rescue operations in Israel. In Lebanon heavy snow in the central Bekaa Valley closed gas stations, banks, schools and most shops; disrupting life for everyone but devastating for the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees living in tents and makeshift shelters. Men were seen using brooms and sticks to try to clear heavy snow from tents, fearing the weight would cause them to collapse. Inside the tents families huddled around wood burning stoves, trying to keep warm. Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip declared a state of emergency over the storm. (Nearly one in three of Gaza’s population is living in temporary accommodation or homeless.)