[RAMALLAH, West Bank (Associated Press - August 4, 2001 7:57 p.m. EDT)] - Prominent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti was unhurt Saturday after two missiles landed near his car in the West Bank. Palestinians called it an assassination attempt; Israeli sources said Barghouti was not the target of the attack.

Later, a senior Palestinian official said Yasser Arafat sent urgent letters to President Bush and leaders in Russia, China and the European Union calling for intervention in the conflict with the Israelis.

Arafat told Bush the conflict had become extremely dangerous and the situation demanded urgent American intervention, the official said.

"From here in the Holy Land we urge you to take up your responsibility regarding the peace process which your father started and to revive the hope of keeping this process alive," he quoted the letter as saying.

Barghouti, an outspoken leader of Arafat's Fatah movement, was shaken but unhurt in the attack in the West Bank. A Palestinian security official traveling in a second car was injured.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the attack in the town of Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem. Israeli security sources said the target was not Barghouti but the wounded official. They accused him of killing several Israelis over the past few months, including Binyamin Zeev Kahane, son of the assassinated anti-Arab leader Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Military sources said they "did not in any way try to kill Marwan Barghouti."

Barghouti, who has received extensive media coverage with his calls for Palestinian resistance against Israel, said he was leaving his office in Ramallah when the attack took place. Palestinian security officials were traveling with him in a second car.

The first missile exploded in front of the two cars, prompting the men in both vehicles to flee. A second missile hit the car belonging to the security officials, smashing in its roof, sending dark plumes of smoke in the air, and injuring the one man as he tried to escape.

The missiles were fired from Psagot, a nearby Jewish settlement which overlooks Ramallah, Palestinian security officials at the scene said.

"We were holding a meeting in the office. As soon as we finished we left the building in two cars," Barghouti told The Associated Press by telephone.

"If they didn't miss us with the first missile we might be dead by now. The first missile gave us the time to run away from the car."

Hospital officials identified the injured security official as Mohanned Abu Halaweh, a member of Arafat's elite presidential guard, Force 17. Doctors said he suffered light burns.

Israeli security sources identified him as Mohanned Diria but said he was also known as Abu Halaweh. They said he was directly responsible for the killing of at least eight Israelis, including Binyamin Kahane and his wife, Talia, who were ambushed on a West Bank road on Dec. 31.

The Israelis have carried out repeated attacks against suspected Palestinian militants during the 10 months of fighting. Israel says it targets Palestinians who have carried out or planned attacks against Israel, as well as those who are preparing attacks.

The raids have provoked outrage among the Palestinians, and have been condemned by the United States, the European Union and other nations. If Israel was targeting Barghouti, he would be the most prominent Palestinian leader to come under attack.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of targeting all Palestinians.

"Sharon and his government are declaring this war against everybody, the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people," he said at the scene. "This was a clear assassination attempt."

Palestinian witness Khaled Eisa said he was standing outside his house when Barghouti and his entourage passed by.

"Marwan came down the road in his jeep and waved at us. As soon as he got to the end of the road I saw a missile flying toward me," Eisa said. "We heard the second one and ran up to the house, and people began shouting."

Barghouti later called on Abu Halaweh in a local hospital and was congratulated by well wishers on his lucky escape.

Speaking to reporters Barghouti said the attack was meant to silence the Palestinian uprising. "It will increase and escalate in the coming days and weeks in response to this," he said.

As part of its response to the incident, Fatah's local wing hastily organized a march through the streets of Ramallah. Joining the march, Barghouti held onto part of a giant Palestinian flag and walked beside Fatah gunmen who chanted slogans and fired into the air.

In the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, meanwhile, a Palestinian died in what appeared to be the premature explosion of a bomb he was preparing for use against Israelis.

Hospital officials identified the victim as 25-year-old Suleiman Shabeer, a local Fatah activist. Local mosques broadcast news of his death through their loudspeakers and said he died "in a holy mission."

Earlier the Israeli army briefly sent tanks and bulldozers into Palestinian-controlled territory, destroying a police post, the Palestinians said.

The operation was in response to Palestinian mortar fire from the post, which injured a father and son living in the nearby Kfar Darom settlement, the Israeli army said. ..

JERUSALEM (Reuters- 8 /04) - Gun battles raged on Saturday night on Jerusalem's outskirts and across the West Bank after a botched Israel missile strike against Palestinian activists intensified the wrath of Palestinians revolting against Israeli occupation. In some of the heaviest fighting in months, gunfire on the outskirts of Jerusalem echoed through the Holy City after Palestinian gunmen opened fire at Israeli apartment buildings, drawing a heavy Israeli response.

Tracer bullets sliced through the night sky and the sounds of explosions and the distant rattle of Israeli machinegun fire reverberated through central Jerusalem. The ground occasionally shook as a tank shell landed in a Palestinian area nearby.

As the Saturday night firefight raged at Gilo, a Jewish settlement that Israel regards as a neighborhood of Jerusalem, fighting spread to other parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

At least 510 Palestinians, 130 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began over 10 months ago.

Senior West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, an influential figure in the uprising, said he was the target of the Israeli missile strike which hit two cars near his office outside Ramallah but not his vehicle. ``This is a failed assassination attempt,'' Barghouthi told Reuters. ``The criminal occupiers will pay for this new crime.''

Israeli military and political sources denied that Barghouthi was the target. Security officials said the missiles were intended for Barghouthi's wounded aide, whose car suffered a direct hit. Police said 14 apartment buildings in Gilo and two cars were hit by Palestinian bullets and an Israeli woman received a very light face wound.

A Palestinian father, whose house was damaged by Israeli tank fire, said his 10 children were hurt from glass fragments. Palestinians in the town of Beit Jala, which is often used by gunmen to fire on Gilo, said a house was damaged by tank fire.

The fighting late on Saturday spread to the nearby Bethlehem area where the army reported heavy fire at Israeli soldiers guarding a bypass road around the West Bank town, as well as several Jewish settlements and a religious shrine nearby.

``There are exchanges of fire throughout the area (in the southern West Bank),'' an army spokeswoman said.

Israeli security officials said the missile strike near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday had been intended to hit the car carrying Mohamad Abu Halaweh, a Barghouthi aide who the officials said was behind a spate of deadly shooting ambushes.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the attack was a continuation of Sharon's ``policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders.'' Barghouthi said the strike would strengthen the Intifada (uprising). ``The Israelis have launched a comprehensive war against the whole Palestinian people,'' he said.

Arafat sent ``urgent letters'' to the Group of Eight countries who called in a summit last month for both sides to agree to international monitors to oversee a blueprint for implementing a truce and renewing peace talks, an Arafat aide said.

Israel describes its policy of tracking and killing Palestinian militants, which has drawn widespread international criticism, as ``active self-defense'' against those planning deadly attacks on the Jewish state.

Palestinians say Israel's military has assassinated around 60 activists since their uprising began more than 10 months ago.

About 10,000 Israeli peace activists held a candlelight vigil through the streets of Tel Aviv to protest the violence. Waving banners saying ``Stop the Bloodshed,'' the activists marched to the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv in one of the biggest rallies by Israeli doves for months.

In Hebron, the Israeli army said a Jewish settler was lightly wounded when Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a military vehicle and at two Jewish settlement compounds in the divided West Bank town.

A spokeswoman said the soldiers did not return fire. Earlier on Saturday, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen waged two separate gun battles, exchanging firing from buildings in the heavily populated town.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP - 8/4) -- Thousands of peace activists marched through Tel Aviv Saturday, demanding an end to 10 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. It was the largest demonstration by the shattered Israeli peace camp since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in February.

Carrying torches and shouting together, ''Occupation no; peace yes,'' some 3,000 protesters marched to the gates of the Defense Ministry from a large downtown plaza where former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by a right-wing Israeli opposed to the leader's search for peace with the Palestinians.

Despite the relative size of the demonstration, its numbers fell short of the 10,000 who used to turn out for marches before the failure of last summer's peace talks and the Palestinian uprising that followed. It followed a week of gunbattles, bombing attempts and pinpoint attacks on Palestinian leaders. The peace camp was left bewildered and directionless after the Palestinians rejected an offer by Prime Minister Ehud Barak -- 91 percent of the West Bank and the willingness to discuss dividing Jerusalem. But the Palestinians said Barak's proposals would have sliced the West Bank into three parts cut off from each other by Israeli roads and settlements.

''It (the peace movement) is obviously confused,'' said Colette Avital, a parliament member from the leftist Labor Party. ''But there are still people in Israel who believe that occupation has to come to an end, who still believe that there should be a chance for peace.''

The protesters carried posters showing Palestinian and Israeli flags drawn as jigsaw puzzle pieces fitting together. Other signs read, ''Bring the settlers home.'' Security around the demonstration was tight. Police pushed suspicious demonstrators out of the crowd, searched bags and perched on the roofs of nearby buildings.

Liad Kantrorowicz, 23, from Jaffa, wore a gas mask like a hat above her black hair and pounded a small tin can with drum sticks. She said she is angry at what she described as a narrowing movement that focuses on peace rather than fighting for justice and civil rights for Palestinians. The demonstration's slogan, ''No to an unnecessary war,'' did not go far enough for her.

''War is an act against humanity. It's also ethnic cleansing.'' Still, she believes the peace camp has gained some strength by shedding those ''who did not have their hearts in it.''

Speaking to the crowd, opposition leader Yossi Sarid, of the dovish Meretz Party, said the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land must end, Jewish settlements in the Palestinian areas must be dismantled and Israel must again pursue peace negotiations with Palestinian leaders.

But 10 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodletting have drowned out that message, even in traditionally liberal Tel Aviv.

Lena Turel, 25, brought her big brown dog, Sherlock, to the march. On the dog's back she wrapped a sign that read, ''Save the peace.''

She said she sees fewer younger people turning up at peace rallies.

''I'm alone,'' she said. ''My friends don't come anymore. That says something.''

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Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/8/322.htm