In the second week of the war, world media turned its attention to the plight of thousands of civilians who were caught in the fighting. Many of them P.L.0. terrorists who merged with the local population hindering the advance of the I.D.F, others, civilian Lebanese who came under the rule of the P.L.0. and were delighted to be liberated from that organization. But the extent of the damage and number of casualties dismayed international public opinion which turned against Israel and accused it of causing misery and suffering. The P.L.0. was able to win headlines with the claim that 600, 000 people were uprooted, more than the entire population of the area affected by the war. It also spread the false figure of 10,000 dead. In this atmosphere, the Security Council met to discuss the suffering of the Lebanese and Palestinian population and unanimously adopted the following resolution:
The Security Council,
Deeply concerned at the sufferings of the Lebanese and Palestinian civilian populations,
Referring to the humanitarian principles of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and to the obligations arising from the regulations annexed to the Hague Convention of 1907,
Reaffirming its resolutions 508 (1982) and 509 (1982),
1. Calls upon all the parties to the conflict to respect the rights of the civilian populations, to refrain from all acts of violence against those populations and to take all appropriate measures to alleviate the suffering caused by the conflict, in particular, by facilitating the dispatch and distribution of aid provided by United Nations agencies and by non-governmental organizations, in particular, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC);
2. Appeals to Member States to continue to provide the most extensive humanitarian aid possible;
3. Stresses the particular humanitarian responsibilities of the United Nations and its agencies, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), towards civilian populations and calls upon all the parties to the conflict not to hamper the exercise of those responsibilities and to assist in humanitarian efforts;
4. Takes note of the measures taken by the Secretary-General to co-ordinate the activities of the international agencies in this field and requests him to make every effort to ensure the implementation of and compliance with this resolution and to report on these efforts to the Council as soon as possible.