“Unfortunately, our leadership in Ramallah heard the bell ringing late,” General Assidi said in an interview at his headquarters here, not yet entirely rebuilt after having been destroyed during the intifada. “We informed them that some members of the security establishment have no loyalty, but nobody paid attention to our request.”

On Monday, General Assidi said, nine of his counterparts from across the West Bank met here with the authority’s top security official, part of a crackdown in which the leadership has vowed to question, arrest and try anyone connected with the attack on Mr. Moussa’s house, the Bir al Basha affair and other recent flare-ups. A new governor, Talal Dwaikat, arrived Sunday, walking the streets for an hour to proclaim his commitment to safety.

“Jenin will not be a place for the gangs,” Mr. Dwaikat told a delegation of Israeli Arab women who came from Nazareth on Monday to express condolences and meet him. “Jenin will be a place of security so we can receive you warmly.”

In an interview afterward, Mr. Dwaikat said he would prosecute every criminal in the region. “There will be no exception,” he said. “Whatever his status in the community or history, law and order is above all of us.

“I want to continue the march of Qadoura Moussa.”

Appointed in 2004 by Yasir Arafat, Mr. Moussa was seen as a man of the street, a humble leader who had served time in Israeli prisons alongside many of his countrymen. Ibrahim Hamadeh, 44, an activist in the governing Fatah Party, recalled that when he was a boy, in a poor family, Mr. Moussa gave him free pens and notebooks from a bookshop he owned.

“He was not a governor; he was a father,” said Mr. Hamadeh, a cook at Mr. Arkawi’s restaurant. “A field-command officer, among the people.”