Last update - 00:00 28/12/2006
Northern schools cancel classes due to icy road conditions
By Haaretz Service
Schools in the Golan Heights and the Galilee canceled classes schedules on Thursday, due to dangerous road conditions caused by ice and heavy snowfall.
The Jerusalem school district began classes on time, despite still icy roads and harsh weather conditions. The municipality said it had employed 26 snow plows to clear out roads and major arteries in the city center.
Classes in the neighboring West Bank settlements of Gush Etzion and Efrat also began later than usual due to the weather.
The Egged bus company resumed operations of bus lines to the city, which it had shut down for a few hours Wednesday evening citing dangerous road conditions.
Heavy snow began falling in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, residents of the capital said, after a day in which dozens of people were injured throughout the country due to the inclement weather.
Electricity use also reached a record 9,450 megawatts Wednesday evening, as temperatures dropped and weather remained severe.
Snow also began falling Wednesday morning in the Golan Heights and the Hebron area, according to local residents. By the afternoon hours, there was snow in Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev.
Meanwhile, dozens of people were injured across the country on Wednesday as a result of the harsh weather. Seven people - a pregnant woman and six children - were lightly injured after strong winds caused the collapse of 12 tents and tin huts in a Bedouin town outside Rahat, in southern Israel.
Some 30 other town residents were treated for frostbite, and 200 tent inhabitants, members of the al-Amrani extended family, were evacuated to a Rahat school for the night.
In Acre, a woman was lightly hurt when she was trapped under a tree toppled by strong winds.
In Tiberias, a 19-year-old man was moderately to seriously injured when he was hit by a marble tile that fell off of a seven-story building. Magen David Adom rescue personnel evacuated the man to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for treatment.