GENEVA, Switzerland, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- The U.N. Human Rights Council has announced it will hold a special session on the situation in Lebanon Aug.11.
The announcement, made Wednesday, comes at the request of 16 of the council's 47 members, including China and Russia, which both hold permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council.
The Human Rights Council, which replaced the Human Rights Commission, has been in existence since June 19 and is based in Geneva. The council announced its first special session July 5 on the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Under the U.N. resolution that created the council it states that a special session shall be held when needed at the request of a member "with the support of one-third of the membership of the Council."
Under the now-defunct Human Rights Commission, support of a majority of members was needed.
The call for the session was led by Tunisia, which chairs the Group of Arab States. In its letter of request, Tunisia said the meeting was needed to "consider and take action on the gross human rights violations by Israel in Lebanon, including the Qana massacre, country-wide targeting of innocent civilians, and destruction of vital civilian infrastructure."
The incident in Qana came on July 30 when Israeli forces fired on an apartment building in the town, killing more than 28 people, including at least 14 children.
Israel says Qana has been the source of over 150 missiles launched into northern Israel since the current crisis began July 12, and that it warned civilians there of the impending attack days in advance.
Lebanon has said civilians were unable to leave either because they were blockaded in from Israeli bombardments of southern Lebanon's network of roads or due to lack of funds.
