A/HRC/3/2 page 135 86 According to international humanitarian law, the dead must always be respected, their remains should be recovered, and steps should be taken to prevent them from being despoiled or mutilated. 87 GC Additional Protocol I, article 52(2). It would be very difficult, for example, for the IDF to claim that the whole town was a military objective and that every house was “by its nature, location, purpose or use making an effective contribution to military action”. Nor could the IDF reasonably claim that the total or partial destruction of such buildings, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offered a definite military objective. 88 See section B.II.n, Use of weapon. 89 For example, heavy fighting had taken place in and around the market area. The walls in this part of the town were extensively pot-marked with small and medium caliber weapons. Press reports, as well as IDF statements, suggest attempts by the IDF to take the town using both the Golani and Paratrooper Brigades. The fact that these two regular army units failed to take the town, again points to the strong resistance of the Hezbollah fighters. 90 Report prepared by the Lebanese Parliamentary Human Rights Committee Network against Israeli war crimes. 91 European Commission; European Union Satellite Centre. Rapid preliminary damage assessment - Beirut and South Lebanon, 31 August 2006, p. 3. 92 The building is located in an open space with the peach orchards on one side. The Commission saw a long row of peaches, now rotten, that were outside the building and which had been ready to be loaded at the time of the bombing. 93 This difference can be explained by the fact that some of those injured died later on when already in Syria. All bodies were transferred to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent by the LRC and Civil Defence. [33 dead including 26 Syrians are figures found in: A/60/969-S/2006/622. Identical letters dated 5 August 2006 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, 5 August 2006. The report of the Baalbeck police station (No. 302/160, 4 August 2006) mentioned 25 dead, all Syrians. The death toll of 39 was indicated to the Commission when it visited the site on 19 October 2006]. 94 Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Summary of IDF operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, 4 August 2006. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/ Terrorism+from+Lebanon-+Hizbullah/Summary+of+IDF+operations+against+Hizbullah+ in+Lebanon+4-Aug-2006.htm (retrieved on 7 November 2006). 95 96 Zahle police station report No. 302/1375, 17 July 2006. The very large crater on the road and surrounding verges points to a much larger weapon than a naval gun, helicopter or drone missile. One of the cars, however, still in place had an obvious missile penetration hole in its roof and it was virtually destroyed by this and subsequent fire.