The move came hours after Abbas dismissed West Bank national security chief, General Haj Ismail Jaber, over the shooting incident late on Wednesday.

Hundreds of members of the various Palestinian security forces were patrolling in Ramallah "to assure order and security" even though Israel has yet to officially transfer control in the city to the Palestinians.

The move came after a group of Palestinian gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of the dominant Fatah faction, opened fire inside Abbas's Ramallah headquarters.

Abbas also sacked Yunis al-Has, security chief for Ramallah, where the shooting rampage highlighted persistent lawlessness in the occupied territories, officials said.

Earlier it emerged that West Bank intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi had offered to resign over the shooting, but that it had not yet been accepted.

"He did this because of the corruption and the shooting against the president's office, which the security forces have done nothing about," an official said of the resignation.