Acting Israel Police Chief Bentzi Sau has said he is "very optimistic" about solving the murder of three members of a Palestinian family in the village of Duma in July, telling Haaretz he believes authorities will manage to bring those responsible to justice.
Sau told the paper the investigation into the arson attack against the Dawabshe family home was one of the police's top priorities, insisting the case "will not leave the table" of police and Shin Bet investigators until it is solved. "We are working on this investigation using a great many resources," he insisted.
"This needs to be the greatest interest, first and foremost of the State of Israel, to solve the case and lay its hands on the perpetrators. As someone who knows the details of the case (most of which is currently under a gag order - ed.) I am very optimistic about solving this murder," Sau added.
The acting police chief said he was proud at the ebb in "Jewish terror" incidents, in his words. "The Israel Police is making great efforts to expose and prevent Jewish terror incidents," he stated, claiming there had been a 72% decrease in the number of so-called "price tag" attacks against Palestinian property by Jewish extremists over the past three years.
Relating to the wave of daily Arab terrorist attacks over the past two months, Sau told how police had focused much of their efforts on restoring calm to the Temple Mount to avoid the violence from spreading, for example by banning the Islamist gangs who were previously given free reign to harass Jewish visitors.
Indeed while Jerusalem was initially the main hub of Arab violence, its epicenter has since shifted southwards to Hamas-dominated Hevron, though sporadic attacks and around Jerusalem still persist.
"We understood that the Temple Mount was, from our perspective, the source of the disturbances, so we chose to isolate the Temple Mount from anyone who was likely to cause potentially violent events in its environs."
Sau also also voiced support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's order to ban MKs from ascending the Temple Mount.
"We knew we would hear a great deal of arguments (against the move.) But it has proven itself as a step to return quiet to the Temple Mount," he said.
"We are now already one and a half months without any of the kind of serious incidents we had become accustomed to in the previous months. The Temple Mount is currently experiencing its most quiet time in the past several years."