Syrian refugees suffer bitter cold of Lebanon winter

With just blankets to shield them against the icy wind and rain, Abu Ali's family huddles in a flimsy tent in Lebanon - among the thousands of Syrian refugees struggling as winter sets in.

Sixty-year-old Abu Ali is now relatively safe after fleeing the threat of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in northern Syria's Raqa province, but some of his 14 children are already coughing badly.

They have taken shelter at an unofficial camp in Al-Saadiyeh, a village in the eastern Bekaa Valley home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees inadequately equipped to cope with the cold.

"This is our first winter here. We really didn't expect it to be so cold," said Abu Ali.

"We have no sobia, nothing to heat us up," he said, referring to a traditional Middle Eastern diesel or wood-powered stove that luckier refugee families have either received from humanitarian agencies, or bought with their savings.

"All we have is blankets and God's mercy," said Abu Ali, wearing a red and white keffiyeh scarf on his head and a traditional camel-coloured Bedouin robe.

His family's tiny tent is made from sheets of white plastic and planks of wood, and only has straw mats as flooring.

A single battery-powered lantern hangs in the tent, so to escape the darkness, Abu Ali's children brave the cold and rain and play outside.

"I am cold all the time, but there is nothing I can do to keep myself warm, so we play anyway," said 12-year-old Hammudi, whose striking green eyes glistened in the wind as he wandered around in plastic sandals, his feet covered in mud.

The United Nations says more than half of the 1.1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in substandard housing.

Abu Ali's family is among...