Severe Weather Pounds the Middle East

The winter’s first storms have swept through the Middle East, leaving at least six dead in Egypt and one in Israel. In the city of Alexandria in Egypt, the cable from a tram landed in streets flooded with water, electrocuting five people. In Israel, hail pounded the country, and one worker was killed when a wall fell on him in a construction site. Tens of thousands of  Israelis lost power for up to 12 hours. In Lebanon, where a strike has interrupted garbage collection, the storm sent torrents of garbage through the streets of Beirut. Such a heavy rainstorm is not typical so early in the rainy season of the Middle East, where heavy rain usually falls between December and February. The storm and the beginning of winter will make the situation of the tens of thousands of migrants who have fled Syria and are trying to reach Europe even harder. The bodies of 43 migrants, most of them from Africa,