The International Human Rights Council (IHRC) is holding a special session today to discuss the report of the recent United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict.<br/> The session is taking place a day after the Security Council started its own debate on the Middle East. During the session of Security Council yesterday, Arab governments showed up in force to support the Palestinian Authority, while Israel defended its action.<br/> The mission, headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, found evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law, during the conflict in December 2008 and January 2009. Israel has rejected the report.<br/> While Israel is making a massive effort to prevent the report from being referred from the Human Rights Council in Geneva to the Security Council in New York, the decision to call for a special meeting of the council marks a turnaround for the Palestinians. The Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas had earlier agreed to delay the vote for six months but after domestic pressure, debate has now been brought forward following a request from Palestine and co-sponsored by 18 countries including China, Pakistan and Bangladesh apart from some Arab, African and Latin American countries.