The United Nations General Assembly will hold an emergency session Friday to discuss the Israel Defense Forces' offensive in the Gaza Strip, at the request of a group of Arab member states.

The discussion was initiated by the UN's Muslim bloc countries, in response to a U.S. veto in the Security Council last week of a draft decision that included a condemnation of Israel for the shelling in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, which killed 19 civilians.

No state has the right to veto in an emergency GA session, and the significance of the body's decision is largely declarative.

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A draft of the proposal includes the main operative measures that made up the Qatari proposal vetoed by the United States last week. The draft calls on the UN secretary-general to dispatch a "fact-finding mission" to investigate the Beit Hanun incident.

The draft proposal also includes a clause that calls for the establishment of an "international mechanism" for the protection of Gaza's civilian population.

In its efforts to thwart the proposal, Israel's delegation to the UN has held talks with representatives from the United States and other central members of the organization. The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has also instructed its missions abroad to makes efforts to prevent approval of the draft proposal.

The UN's top human rights body on Wednesday condemned "gross and systematic" human rights violations by Israel in Gaza and sent a mission to probe the Beit Hanun incident.

The 47-state Human Rights Council, meeting in special session, approved a resolution brought by Arab and Muslim states that demanded urgent international action to end Israel's repeated military incursions into Palestinian territory.

The President of the Council, Mexican ambassador Alfonso de Alba, was asked to name a high-level team to travel to the Gaza village of Beit Hanoun, scene of last week's shelling, and report back by mid-December.

"The Human Rights Council expresses its alarm at the gross and systematic violations of human rights of the Palestinian people in the occupied territory," said the resolution, which was backed by 32 votes to 6 with 8 abstentions.

The council has censured only one country - Israel - during its six-month existence.

Members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference were joined by China, Russia and Cuba in criticizing Israel for alleged rights abuses, deploring the IDF artillery barrage in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun that killed 19 civilians last week.

Masood Khan, ambassador of Pakistan to the UN in Geneva, called on council members to condemn the killings and send a fact-finding mission to Beit Hanun "to investigate the horrors inflicted on its people."

Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said the special session was just another example of the council's lack of objectivity. He told the council that it was ignoring the death of an Israeli woman Wednesday by Palestinian rocket fire.

"We see only evidence of one-sidedness, double standards and politicized decision-making," he said. "Those who pushed for this special session are conspicuously ignoring tragedies in other parts of the planet."

Khan spoke on behalf of the 57-member OIC, which joined in requesting the one-day special session on Israel - the council's third such emergency meeting since it began operations last June. Khan rejected criticism that the OIC was unbalanced in singling out Israel.

"Balance cannot be created where non exists, by diktat of realpolitik," he said. "We cannot create a balance between those who killed and those who were killed."

China, Russia and Cuba also criticized the IDF shelling of an apartment compound in Beit Hanun.

The shelling, which Israel said was unintended, came after IDF troops wound up a weeklong incursion meant to curb Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel from the town, which the miltiary said was a rocket-launching stronghold.

U.S. Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor said the casualties in Beit Hanun were tragic, but he asserted that the council had no business in talking about the IDF operations.

"This council should not address particular military actions taken during a period of armed conflict that are clearly governed by the law of war," he said.

"It is indeed unfortunate that the council is using its limited resources to discuss subjects not purely within its mandate when there are pressing concerns that fall explicitly within its purview. Why is the council loath to address important human rights situations elsewhere such as Sudan?"

Finland, speaking on behalf of the European Union, urged Israel to "exercise utmost restraint" and also criticized the firing of rockets at Israel from Gaza.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told council members she will visit Israel and the West Bank and Gaza during a six-day mission starting Nov. 19 to examine the current situation of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

"My primary concern will be to emphasize the obligation to protect civilians during armed confrontation, and the entitlement of all, Palestinians and Israelis alike, to live free from fear, free from want, free from harm," she
said.

In its first special session in July, the council accused Israel of breaching international humanitarian law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and dispatched a fact-finding mission to the region. In a second session in September it said Israel had abused rights during its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A special session of the Human Rights Council is required if one-third of the 47 council members - or 16 countries - request it. That means the OIC - with 17 members on the panel - can call for a session whenever it chooses.