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The Palestinian prime minister has confirmed that Marwan Barghouthi, a prominent Fatah leader, is on a list of prisoners the Palestinians want freed in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier. Ismail Haniya's comments came after Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah deputy prime minister, said the popular West Bank leader was left off the list. "I can confirm to you that the list [of prisoners] included the name of Marwan al-Barghouthi," Haniya said during a weekly protest by families of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. About 1,400 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails are reportedly on the list to be considered...

The president of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat drove out in the night of Wednesday to Thursday 21 persons in charge and activists of the Brigades of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs who had taken refuge in his headquarters of Ramallah, indicated one of them. "Yasser Arafat obliged us, twenty of my comrades of the Brigades of the Al-Aqsa martyrs and me, to leave Mouqataa", its HQ, indicated to the AFP Ali Barghouthi, one of the heads of this organization for the West Bank. The Brigades of the Al-Aqsa martyrs are a nebula of armed groups related to Fatah, the movement...

Barghouthi says besmirching freedom fighters as terrorists is terror against Palestinians Fatah Secretary-General in the West Bank, Marwan al Barghouthi, has castigated the American decision to add the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to the state department's list of terrorist groups. He described the American step as "an act of aggression and terror against the Palestinian people.” "This measure is undoubtedly an act of aggression and terror against the Palestinian people which is struggling to rid itself of the Israeli military occupation." The Palestinian daily, al Ayyam, 23 March, quoted Barghouthi as saying that "it is Israel and its government who should...