A/HRC/4/116 page 2 3. On 10 July 2006, I submitted such a memorandum to the President and the High Commissioner setting out the objectives, timing, duration and composition of the mission together with proposals of places to visit and persons to consult. The memorandum proposed that the mission should “visit the Occupied Palestinian Territory as soon as possible and preferably before the end of July”. 4. The President of the Human Rights Council met shortly afterwards with the Ambassador of Israel and requested the consent of the Government of Israel for the mission. The President later informed me that the Ambassador had indicated that he would seek instructions on the matter from the Government of Israel and give his reply as soon as possible. 5. I then proceeded to constitute the fact-finding mission. I approached a military security officer and an expert in public health to join the mission under my leadership. Arrangements were made for the assistance of two staff members of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, one security officer and interpreters. The mission was planned to last for 7 to 10 days. 6. As the days passed, I became worried that the President of the Human Rights Council had received no reply from the Government of Israel. On Tuesday 18 July 2006, I spoke with the President who told me that he had asked the Ambassador to provide him with a reply by 20 July. Later the President informed me that the Ambassador had told him that the Government of Israel required more time to make its decision. 7. On 21 July the President wrote a letter to the Ambassador in which he requested a reply to his request for consent to the mission by 24 July, failing which he would have to inform the members of the Council. To the best of my knowledge the President received no reply to this letter. 8. The days and weeks passed without any response from the Ambassador of Israel. At least I was not informed of any such response. Consequently, on 8 August I wrote a letter to the President (copied to the High Commissioner and the sponsors of resolution S-1/1) in which I stated: “We have now waited for more than a month to receive a reply from the Government of Israel I think we have no alternative but to construe its failure to reply as a refusal. In my view you should notify the Government of Israel that this is the position and that you should report accordingly to the Human Rights Council. … I request you to kindly inform the Human Rights Council that in my view it is pointless to persist with the fact-finding mission requested on 6 July as the Government of Israel has, by its failure to respond to your request, indicated very clearly that it will not grant permission to the visit of such a fact-finding mission.” 9. I was accordingly not able to head a fact-finding mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territory in July-August 2006 as required by the Human Rights Council in its resolution S-1/1. I did, however, compile a report on the situation in Gaza, following the start of “Operation