Lebanon border calm as Israel-Hamas truce takes effect

Calm returned to Lebanon's southern border Friday as a temporary truce took effect in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to state media, residents and an AFP journalist.

Since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, Lebanon's southern border with Israel has witnessed deadly exchanges of fire, primarily involving Israeli forces and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, as well as Palestinian groups.

Hezbollah said that as long as Israel abides by the ceasefire, it will also cease hostilities along Lebanon's southern border.

"A precarious calm reigned on the southern border, with the humanitarian truce in Gaza coming into effect at 7:00 in the morning (0500 GMT)," Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

The four-day truce in the Gaza Strip will see Hamas exchange 50 hostages seized from Israel during the October 7 attacks for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

A journalist from French news agency AFP said he had heard exchanges of fire 10 minutes prior to the truce in the Marjayoun border region, before the guns fell silent.

A resident in the Alma al-Shaab border region also said the situation was calm and that he could no longer hear Israeli planes or reconnaissance drones flying overhead.

On the eve of the truce, Hezbollah had intensified its cross-border attacks on Israeli forces, which in response pounded southern Lebanon.

Egypt has said 130,000 litres of diesel and four trucks of gas will be delivered daily to Gaza when a truce between Israel and Hamas starts on Friday, and that 200 trucks of aid would enter Gaza daily.https://t.co/MPnIWBMf2b

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 24, 2023

On Friday, the Iran-backed Shia group claimed responsibility for 22 attacks on Israeli positions from southern Lebanon, where it lost seven of its fighters during the day.

Hezbollah says it has been acting in support of Hamas since the group's October 7 attacks on Israel, which Israeli officials say killed around 1,200 people and saw about 240 people taken hostage.

Israel's air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed nearly 15,000 people, thousands of them children, according to the Palestinian government in Gaza.

The cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have claimed 109 lives in Lebanon, at least 77 of them Hezbollah fighters and 14 civilians, according to an AFP count.

Among those killed were three journalists, the son of the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc and an official from Hamas's military wing in Lebanon.