'Any Harm to Barghouti, Will Lead To Grave Consequences, ' -An Arafat Aide
'International Mideast Peace Conference Needs Not Involve Arafat-Powell;
Israel's Savage West Bank Offensive Continues & Hizbollah Defies Powell in Lebanon (Read photo caption within)

Israel on Monday arrested a Palestinian leader it regards as the top Resistance leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and a driving force behind deadly attacks against Occupation targets.

The occupation army captured Marwan Barghouti in the West Bank city of Ramallah, sources said, even as Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed ahead with his beleaguered peace mission with visits to Beirut and Damascus before returning to Israel.

ANY HARM TO BARGHOUT WILL LEAD TO GRAVE CONSEQUENCIES

Arafat aide Ahmed Abdul Rehman told Reuters: "Any harm to Barghouti will lead to grave consequences."
Israeli forces involved in a crushing 17-day-old offensive in the West Bank arrested Barghouti, 42 in a Ramallah apartment along with a relative, Ahmed Barghouti, the sources said.

Israel has accused Barghouti of leading Fatah-affiliated militants behind bombings, shooting ambushes and Resistance bombings that have killed scores of Israelis during an 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation.

Barghouti, a member of the Fatah revolutionary council and the Palestinian Legislative Council, has denied the allegations but has maintained that Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
He is the highest-ranking Fatah activist detained by Israel since the start of the campaign.

Barghouti, who spent several years in Israeli jails and speaks fluent Hebrew, said on Israeli television before the current West Bank campaign that Sharon would be responsible for dozens of Israeli deaths if Israel killed him.

"They tried to assassinate him more than once. He had been careful. But what can he do against the savagery of the occupation?" his wife told Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television.

POWELL'S BLEAGURED PEACE MISSION

Powell, who has been stymied so far in his efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire, called on Lebanon and Syria to rein in Hizbollah guerrillas whose border attacks against Israel he said threatened to escalate into a regional conflict.
He also gave a big boost to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new proposal for a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference, saying it could take place at ministerial level and not necessarily involve Arafat -- a key Israeli condition.
On Monday, Powell first flew to Beirut and later to Damascus, where he held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country is the main power broker in Lebanon.

In Beirut, he was met with chants of "Death to America" by thousands of Lebanese Hizbollah supporters.
Hizbollah has intensified attacks against Israeli positions in recent weeks. Israel, which withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, has warned of wide scale retaliation if the Lebanese Resistance group continues its cross-border strikes.

FIGHTING & INCURSIONS CONTINUE AS LEBANON'S HIZBOLLAH DEFIES POWELL

In Bethlehem, Israeli occupation troops exchanged fire Monday with armed Palestinians holed up in the Church of the Nativity compound, and an Israeli ambulance later evacuated two men from inside the compound.

Israeli occupation troops also entered Abdia and Deir Salah, two Palestinian villages near Bethlehem, as part of the 17-day-old military offensive in the West Bank, despite repeated U.S. calls for an end to such incursions, and doctors said two Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids.

Across the border in Lebanon, Hizbollah Resistance group vowed on Monday to continue attacks on Israeli occupation troops in a disputed border area, shrugging off Secretary of State Colin Powell's warning that it was risking regional conflict.
The group has attacked Israeli posts in a disputed border zone almost daily since the start of Israel's military offensive in the West Bank more than two weeks ago, drawing Israeli threats of broad retaliation against Syria.

                                                                                        SOURCE: News Agencies

PHOTO CAPTION:

August 6, 2001 file picture of Marwan Barghouti, who was arrested by Israel April 15, 2002. Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, is accused of leading militants who have carried out scores of attacks on occupation targets and is regarded by Israel as the top Resistance leader in the West Bank. (Osama Silwadi/Reuter