.A boy runs down snow-covered stairs in the Old City of Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM - A rare snowstorm swept the Middle East on Wednesday, blanketing parts of the Holy Land in white, shutting schools and sending excited children into the streets for snowball fights.
.Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security force throw snow balls at each other outside Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Men in long Arab robes pelted each other with snowballs in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government, came to a standstill.
"I'm originally from Gaza where snow never falls," said Bothaina Smairi, 28, who was out in Ramallah taking photographs. "The white snow is covering the old world and I feel like I am in a new world where everything is white, clean, and beautiful."
A woman walks through the snow in the Old City of Jerusalem, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008. A heavy overnight snowstorm blanketed Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land in white on Wednesday, closing schools and stores and grounding public transportation.
Jerusalem's Old City was coated in white. A few ultra-Orthodox Jews, wearing plastic bags over their hats to keep them dry, prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.
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Snow falls in Jerusalem once or twice each winter, but temperatures rarely drop low enough for it to stick. The Israeli weather service said up to 8 inches of snow fell in the city.
.A Jewish man walks on a roof top with the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the background in the Old City of Jerusalem during a snow storm January 30, 2008. Jerusalem and its holy sites were covered in a blanket of snow on Wednesday.
Heavy snow also was reported in the Golan Heights and the northern Israeli town of Safed, and throughout the West Bank.
In Ramallah, residents were surprised to see snow when they awoke. For some, it was their first time.
"I am just astonished with the snow. When I saw the snow this morning, I felt happy, my heart was laughing," said Mary Zabaro, 17.
In Amman, where a foot of snow fell, children used inflatable tubes as sleds. Some roads were temporarily closed.
Snow covered most mountain villages and blocked roads in Lebanon. The storm disrupted power supplies in most Lebanese towns and villages, exacerbating existing power cuts. Parts of the Beirut-Damascus highway were closed.
Temperatures in Syria dipped below freezing and snow blanketed the hills overlooking the capital, Damascus.
.A member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security force is seen outside the presidential compound as it snows in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008. A heavy overnight snowstorm blanketed Ramallah and other parts of the Holy Land in white on Wednesday, closing schools and stores and grounding public transportation
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