On 17 September 1948, UN Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, and Colonel André Serot, while on an official tour of duty to Jerusalem, were murdered "in cold blood... in the Katamon quarter of Jerusalem by Jewish assailants." After the assassination, the talks between the warring parties began under the supervision of Acting Mediator Ralph Bunche. Bunche, Chief of the UN Mission in Palestine, in his letter to the Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok wrote that the incident was "an outrage against the international community and an unspeakable violation of elementary morality. His [Bernadotte's] safety, therefore, and that of his Lieutenants under the ordinary rules of law and order was a responsibility of the Provisional government of Israel whose armed forces and representatives control and administer the area. The act constitutes a breach of the truce of the utmost gravity for which the Provisional Government of Israel must assume full responsibility." The Provisional Government of Israel did not submit the report to the Security Council or to the Acting Mediator regarding the progress of the investigation into the assassination of Count Bernadotte.