U.S. embassy in Lebanon hails '12 hours of calm' on border with Israel

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.S. embassy in Lebanon on Friday said there had been 12 hours of calm along the Blue Line marking the border with Israel, where daily exchanges of fire had been taking place between armed group Hezbollah and Israel.

"Twelve hours of calm on the Blue Line have given us all hope and renewed energy to build a better tomorrow for Lebanon," the embassy said on X.

Residents told Reuters that the frontier had been quiet since just before 0700 local time on Friday morning, apart from a small spray of fire from the Israeli side.

It followed a temporary truce brokered by Qatar between Israel and Hezbollah's ally Hamas in Gaza.

The truce did not formally extend to Lebanon, but Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Shi'ite Amal Movement which is allied to Hezbollah, told reporters on Thursday that "what will happen in Gaza will happen in Lebanon."

"If there is a disruption (to the truce) in Gaza, there will be a disruption in Lebanon, given that what is happening in the south is for the sake of Gaza," Berri said.

A total of 87 Hezbollah fighters have killed since violence broke out along the border following Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, including seven in neighbouring Syria.

More than a dozen Lebanese civilians, including children and journalists, have also been killed in Israeli shelling on southern Lebanon.

The exchanges of fire had been ramping up in the days leading up to the Hamas-Israel truce.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alistair Bell)