Syrian refugees face new challenge Syrian refugees in the snow in Istanbul. The refugees in Turkey, faced further misery due to increasing shortages of supplies, low temperatures, and snowfall. Kilis, Turkey: The women stood protectively around the tiny bundle perched on a plastic chair outside one of Turkey's largest refugee camps as the sky darkened and the temperature dropped below freezing before winter's first heavy dump of snow. When she emerged from underneath her blanket, Ghusun, who is "more than 100 years old," turned her deeply lined face from the wind and moaned in pain from the cold. Her small group of seven included an 87-year-old woman, four other women and one man. Each clutching old blankets to shield themselves from the bitter wind, they explained they had left their homes in the Syrian city of Homs two months ago, making their slow way to Aleppo, then finally crossing the border into Turkey just before the snow fell. Rejected by one refugee camp already - "they said they were full" - they were hopeful a nearby camp would be able to take them. Bent nearly double from osteoporosis, the old woman was helped to a taxi by her cousin, past a group of young boys playing marbles on the cold cement and a steady flow of refugees rushing back and forth across the Syrian border. They drove off towards the storm clouds, not knowing where they would take shelter that night. The temperature dropped to minus four and by morning the heavy snowfalls had blanketed Turkey, bringing extra misery for the hundred of thousands of Syrian refugees who have taken shelter in the camps and towns along the border. Few were prepared for the snowstorm that has also covered much of Syria and northern Lebanon, creating a new crisis for the 9.3 million Syrians the United Nations says are in urgent need of emergency assistance, including at least 6.5 million who have been internally displaced by three years of war, as well as 2.5 million refugees in neighbouring countries. Some are beginning their third winter in refugee camps or other temporary homes and for many, hope is fading. "It is so hard to keep the children warm and dry in the winter, we have no heating, we have just a few blankets and these clothes we are wearing," said one young mother as she cuddled her three young children tightly to her. The storm was so severe the UN was forced to call off its first cross-border airlift of 12 planeloads of humanitarian aid due to fly from Iraq's Kurdistan region to north-east Syria, while other relief agencies say they are struggling to distribute emergency supplies because of the heavy snow. The UNHCR plans to fly 40 tonnes of aid into the area, which has become increasingly dangerous to reach, providing relief for 50-60,000 people, its spokesman Peter Kessler told Agence France-Presse. Heavy snow has also started falling along the Syrian border with Jordan, near the enormous Zaatari refugee camp that is home to 120,000 refugees, mostly from the neighbouring province of Daraa. The UNHCR's Andrew Harper reported on Twitter that teams were helping to move blankets and mattresses to the front lines as refugees crossed overnight into Jordan. Meanwhile the UNHCR, with the help of the Lebanese Armed Forces and other groups, distributed extra emergency shelter kits, including plastic sheets, timber and tools, to thousands of refugees living in tents in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, the region worst affected by the storm, the agency said on Thursday. The freezing temperatures and snowfalls are expected to continue into the weekend, followed by heavy winter rains throughout December and January, meteorologists said.