Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called on the Lebanese people to join Israel's fight against Hezbollah, saying their country had been taken "hostage" by the militant group.

"Israel is not at war with you. We are at war with Hezbollah, that has taken your country hostage... We yearn for peace with you, with Lebanon," Netanyahu said in a video statement directed at the Lebanese people.

Hundreds of people rallied on Wednesday evening in Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, in support of Iran and its allies in the Middle East war, AFP correspondents said.

The rally came despite the ongoing war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, with Israel pounding south and east Lebanon daily and still occasionally striking Beirut's southern suburbs, known locally as Dahieh, most recently on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday the end of a ban it imposed on Lebanese imports five years ago, marking a major step in attempts to rebuild relations between Lebanon and Gulf countries.

The kingdom slapped a ban on Lebanese fruits and vegetables in 2021, saying they were being used to smuggle drugs. In one notable case, Saudi Arabia announced it had seized over 5 million pills of the amphetamine drug Captagon hidden in a shipment of pomegranates coming from Lebanon.

President Joseph Aoun stressed Wednesday that "it is impossible to live outside the framework of the state, as experience has proven," warning that "anything else is a sin" against the country.

the Israeli army abducted Wednesday a municipal council member and a local worker in the southern border village of Kfarshouba, as they were pumping water to the village, the National News Agency said.

The Israeli military later said the two men had approached troops in southern Lebanon and that they were taken to Israel for questioning.

The U.N. rights chief said Wednesday he would send a mission to Lebanon to collect evidence on alleged rights abuses since the war began between Hezbollah and Israel.

"I have agreed with the government of Lebanon to conduct an impartial and independent assessment mission in the country," Volker Turk told journalists, adding: "I will soon be deploying a team to collect information and evidence on alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law, and violations of international humanitarian law and related law committed by the parties to the armed conflict in the country since March 2."

A strike hit a vehicle in the center of the southern coastal city of Sidon on Wednesday, killing two people, as Israeli attacks continue across the country's south.

Other strikes targeted Majdalzoun, Kfar Rumman, Dweir and other towns and villages in south Lebanon, while Hezbollah targeted Israeli troops and equipment in Yohmor-Shqif.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Wednesday that Israel's attacks on Syria and Lebanon have started to represent a threat to Turkey.

Israeli strikes targeted Wednesday the southern city of Tyre and other towns and villages in south Lebanon including Tayrdebba, Nsariyeh, al-Majadel, Srifa, Bazourieh, Deir Qanoun, Kfar Remman, Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Kfardounine, Ghassaniyeh and Bnaafoul.

The Israeli army targeted a car in Dweir and issued evacuation orders for Ghassaniyeh, Houmine al-Fawqa, and Nsariyeh.

As Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs last March and residents fled in panic, one man found his opportunity. Amid the chaos, he slipped out of his imprisonment in a Hezbollah cell and made his way to the green hills overlooking the Lebanese capital.

There, in the posh diplomatic quarter of Baabda, he disappeared inside the gates of the Ukrainian Embassy.