A/HRC/2/7 page 30 44 The mission also took note of statements by some Israeli officials that are incompatible with international humanitarian law. For example, Haim Ramon, at the time Israeli Justice Minister, is reported to have said that “in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops moved in” (BBC, 27 July 2006). 45 IDF, Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (CSS), “The IDF-Hezbollah confrontation (Updated on the morning of Thursday, July 20),” 20 July 2006. 46 Robin Wright, “Inside the Mind of Hezbollah”, The Washington Post, 16 July 2006, at http://www.washingtonpost.com. 47 Translation from Arabic provided in Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “IDF warns Lebanese civilians to leave danger zones” (25 July 2006) at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+from+Lebanon+Hizbullah/IDF+warns+Lebanese+civilians+to+leave+danger+zones+3-Aug-2006.htm. 48 Different sources provide varying data about the number of buildings and housing units destroyed in the Dahiye, as well as on the population of the destroyed and damaged buildings. For details, see note 60 below. 49 Information referred to by the Government of Israel named some 400 alleged Hezbollah fighters as being among the total and claimed that an additional 200 of those killed were also fighters. 50 See the recommendation in para. 103 (b) below. 51 The term South Lebanon is used to refer to the three districts of Tyre, Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun. 52 These figures are taken from the Rapid Preliminary Damage Assessment (p. 6) prepared by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) with a view to the 31 August 2006 Stockholm Conference on Lebanon’s Early Recovery, http://www.lebanonundersiege.gov.lb/Documents/rapidpreliminarydamageassessment.pdf. Buildings include residential buildings, medical facilities, industrial buildings and greenhouses. In Tyre, the only district for which disaggregated data are available, 292 of the 306 destroyed buildings were residential. 53 According to statements by Hezbollah, 74 Hezbollah combatants were killed – in all of Lebanon - in the course of the armed conflict (Amal also announced the death of 17 fighters; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) announced the deaths of two fighters). IDF, on the other hand, IDP informed the mission that 600 fighters were killed (400 of whom it reports having identified by name). In statements to the media, the IDF Chief of Staff reportedly stated that 650 Hezbollah fighters were killed, adding that this was not a final figure (YnetNews, “Halutz: I don’t need a lawyer”, 20 September 2006