UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 12 -- The United Nations and its humanitarian partners are ramping up aid efforts for the more than 800,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon who were shivering through rains, snowfall and freezing temperature as a fierce winter storm moves across the region, UN officials said here Friday.

The snow storm "Alexa" struck Lebanon Tuesday night, bringing snow to higher areas and torrential rain elsewhere, accompanied by high winds.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners on Tuesday sped up the distribution of additional emergency shelter kits -- including plastic sheets, timber and tools -- to thousands of refugees living in tents in the Bekaa, eastern Lebanon, so far the hardest-hit area by the storm.

Emergency teams continued their aid effort on Wednesday despite blocked roads by the weather. Alternative shelters are also being prepared for refugees whose tents may be affected by the snow, rain and flooding, said the officials.

The UNHCR said it is particularly concerned about the many refugees in Lebanon living in makeshift accommodation, as their homes are fragile and substandard. The number of refugees in Lebanon has increased five-fold in the past year.

The outbreak of the Syrian crisis in March 2011 and the ongoing armed conflicts led to a massive influx of Syrian refugees into neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

"For the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Lebanon, as well as those in neighboring countries and the displaced in Syria, a storm like this creates immense additional hardship and suffering, " said Amin Awad, director of UNHCR's Middle East and North Africa Bureau.

"With Lebanon's help, we're doing everything we can to get rapid additional help to people who most need it," Awad said. " This is on top of the winter preparations already done over the past months."

Some 125,000 refugees living in the Bekaa Valley have already received winter kits and 55,000 more will be reached in the coming days. Humanitarian agencies working throughout Lebanon have already distributed 255,000 blankets and more than 6,000 stoves in the past months. Some 45,000 ATM cards with 150 U.S. dollars each have also been distributed to vulnerable families to buy additional stoves and fuel.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners are working to meet the food needs of newly arrived Syrian refugees in areas affected by the storm in Lebanon with enough food stocks to feed 150,000 people. Elsewhere in the country, the agency is providing food assistance to more than 600,000 Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR using electronic food vouchers.

The UNHCR said Lebanon, currently the largest Syrian refugee hosting country in the region, has no established refugee camps and people there were living in the community in nearly 1,600 different areas.

Winter conditions are a major worry for the almost 2.3 million Syrian refugees around the region and more than 6 million displaced internally in Syria, where the conflict has passed the 1, 000th day mark.

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie said this "shocking milestone" should spur everyone involved in the peace conference planned for next month in Geneva to do all they can to end the violence.

"Each of the last thousand days has been a living nightmare for the Syrian people," she said in a statement.

While the full story of those 1,000 days has yet to be told, Jolie said, more than 100,000 Syrians have died -- the equivalent of 100 people being killed each day for 1,000 days.

"We will look back with shame on this period, and be haunted by our collective failure to prevent this killing of innocents ... We cannot turn back the clock for the Syrian people," she said. "But we have it in our power, as an international community, to prevent another 1,000 days of bloodshed and suffering."