The drought-hit Middle East is recovering from its heaviest snowfall in many years.

At least nine people were killed in incidents ranging from traffic accidents and hypothermia to buildings collapsing under the weight of the snow.

The snow fell in depths of up to 30cm in a wide area that included Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Even the Negev desert in southern Israel got its share of snow, the first in 50 years, coating the backs of camels and sheep with a thick layer of white.

The desert between the Jordanian capital Amman and the Iraqi border was dusted with white and oil tankers parked on the shoulder to avoid tipping over onto slippery roads.

Snowball fights even broke out among Jewish worshippers at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

One Palestinian was killed and another injured in the Ras el-Amud district of east Jerusalem when the weight of snow caved in the roof of their home.

Sick rescued

Two homeless people died of hypothermia in Tel Aviv and its satellite town of Rehovot, and another died in the northern coastal city of Haifa.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Israelis headed on Saturday to the slopes of Israel's only ski resort, on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.

The Jordanian civil defence department said it had received reports of 645 road accidents, cases of people being poisoned by leaking exhaust fumes from gas heaters as well as the rescue of the sick and families blocked in by the snow.

Drifts as deep as 50cm hampered travel in the north of the kingdom on Saturday, but Jordanian meteorological services expect the storm to die out on Sunday.

In Egypt, three people were killed and 105 others hurt in a flurry of accidents on rain-slicked roads, while snow blanketed the mountains in the Sinai desert.

However, the wet weather is generally good news for the region, which desperately needs relief from a severe drought.