For the second day in a row, areas of Israel today were pelted by snow, accompanied by sub-zero temperatures, that blocked roads and highways and forced the closing of schools. Three settlements were cut off, and plans were made to supply them by helicopter if they could not be reached by trucks within a few hours.
A hailstorm swept the coastal region as far south as the Sde Boker kibbutz in the Negev, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion’s vacation retreat. The snow, falling through the night and early morning, covered large areas of the hilly regions of the upper Galilee and the Negev Nearly 20 feet of snow piled up in some areas of the Galilee and the Western region up to the Lebanese border.
Farm crops were reported not to have been severely damaged, except for banana plantations which were slightly hurt by the cold.
The snow reached storm proportions last night in the Jerusalem and Lydda areas. Thousands of parents and their children continued to visit the Safed area to show the youngsters the blanket of snow covering the town.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
