Jerusalem was transformed into a winter wonderland on Thursday after heavy overnight snowfall turned the city and much of the region white, bringing hordes of excited children onto the streets.

As temperatures plummeted, the bitter winds and rain that have battered the Middle East since Sunday turned into snow, blanketing the region in white and closing schools and businesses.

As dawn broke, at least 10 centimeters of snow had settled in Jerusalem, which lies at an altitude of about 800 meters, giving its pine-covered hills the unusual aspect of a ski resort.

During the height of the snowfall, buses were cancelled, but service gradually resumed as the storm tapered off and the sun returned.

City officials asked residents to avoid driving and to use public transport.

Across the city, schools were closed for the day, with thousands of gleeful children, and no shortage of adults, taking to the streets to pelt each other with snowballs or to build snowmen.

"Look at our snowman!" Manar Barhoum shouted in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa, pointing proudly at her 4ft (1.2 meters)-high effort, complete with a carrot nose and eyes made of cucumber slices.

"It's a salad snowman," her mother Miriam laughed, as she tried to use cherry tomatoes to form a mouth, before giving up and using a curved branch instead.

With snow a rarity in the normally temperate Middle East, many resorted to using trays or bin bags to slide down some of the city's many steep hills, although some people could be seen dragging sleds through the streets.

Yoni, 32, was out with his three boys in St Simon park in west Jerusalem.

"This is a true celebration for every person in the city. People are out on the streets, greeting each other," he said.

"We went out with a ruler to measure the snow's height, and outside our house it was 18 centimeters high."

With less than two weeks until Israel's Jan 22 general election, campaign plans were put on hold for the day, and many electoral posters were almost obliterated by snow, AFP correspondents said.

The winding streets of Jerusalem's Old City were almost completely deserted, with only a handful of shops open for business.

By midday the sun was out in most of Jerusalem and the snow was starting to melt, but then the skies clouded over again and more flakes began to fall.

In Gaza, cold weather and heavy rain flooded several tunnels running between the territory and Egypt, and civil defense officials rescued two people trapped inside.

"A number of tunnels have been damaged by the rain. Some are still open today and working, but most have been closed because of the weather," a source on the border told AFP.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, children and adults, including some policemen who stopped their cruiser for an impromptu snowball fight, were having fun.

Dawla Suleiman, 23, was with a group of women, giggling as they tossed snowballs at each other.

"It's a beautiful day. We feel far away from work, and it's a time to play and enjoy the snow," she said, beaming.

In the northern West Bank village of Qusra, 48-year-old Abdelhamid Qusrawi was also marveling at the snow, which he said was the most he had seen in a decade.

"In 1991, we had more snow, but in the past 10 years, this is the most that we've seen," he said.

"I like the snow, but it is cold for me. I went outside and played with my small nephews, and they were all against me, throwing snowballs at me, so I had to escape inside."

Agence France-Presse