Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Israel's top priority was to secure the "dismantling" of Hezbollah in its first direct talks with Lebanon in decades.

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry has filed an official complaint with the U.N. Security Council over Israel’s intense barrage on the country last week that it says killed over 300 people and wounded 1,150 others.

Lebanese were divided on Wednesday over their government’s decision to pursue rare, direct negotiations with Israel in hopes of ending the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israel hailed on Wednesday the opening of direct talks with Beirut as a "historic opportunity" that could end Hezbollah's "stranglehold" on Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities said Israeli strikes on the country's south killed at least three paramedics on Wednesday, as the Israeli army announced it had attacked 200 Hezbollah targets over 24 hours.

Israel's military chief of staff on Wednesday said he had ordered areas south of Lebanon's Litani River to be turned into a Hezbollah "kill zone" as troops pressed a major offensive there.

A routine convoy transporting military and civilian peacekeepers, along with essential contractors, from Beirut to UNIFIL headquarters was halted by Israeli troops a few kilometers from its destination in Naqoura.

U.N.-marked vehicles were eventually allowed to proceed; however, local contractors were required to return to Beirut under security arrangements, despite the convoy having been fully deconflicted in advance, including their presence, UNIFIL said in a statement.

President Joseph Aoun is satisfied with the Israeli-Lebanese meeting that was held Tuesday in Washington, sources said.

An international media association on Wednesday accused the Israeli military of discrediting a Lebanese journalist it killed last month by circulating an AI‑generated image of him in Hezbollah fatigues.

Three Lebanese journalists, including Ali Shoeib -- a prominent correspondent for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar channel -- were killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon on March 28.

United Nations refugee chief Barham Salih on Wednesday called on the international community to provide urgent support to Lebanon, with a fifth of the country's population displaced by the Israel-Hezbollah war.

"I call upon the international community to provide urgent support and relief to Lebanon," he said after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.