Israelis arrest top Arafat aide

Officials: Suspect headed 'most murderous' organization

The IDF arrested Barghouti at a house north of Ramallah

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The secretary-general of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement was arrested Monday by Israeli forces near Ramallah, West Bank, the Israeli Defense Forces said.

In a statement, the IDF said it had arrested Marwan Barghouti and his nephew, Ahmed, at a house north of Ramallah. The IDF statement called Barghouti "head of the Tanzim organization on the West Bank." Tanzim is Israel's term for the Fatah militias.

Under Barghouti's direction, said the IDF, the militias had become the "most murderous of the terror organizations of late that carried out most of the attacks, using all kinds of methods, mostly suicide."

A top political activist, Barghouti has been accused by Israel of having links to Palestinian militias and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a military offshoot of the Fatah movement. Israel has accused him of being behind a number of strikes against Israelis.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has carried out numerous attacks against military targets and civilians in Israel and in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Last month the U.S. State Department designated it as a foreign terrorist organization.

Documents discovered in Ramallah linked Barghouti to terror attacks, Israel said.

A document released by the IDF is said to be a fax sent September 19 from a Fatah activist to Barghouti requesting money for 12 people, all on Israel's most-wanted list. Barghouti recommended $1,000 for each and sent the fax to Arafat, who wrote, "please allocate $350 to each," and signed his name on the side of the document, the Israelis said.

Barghouti, considered close to Arafat, went into hiding when Israel began its military campaign March 29 in the West Bank.

Barghouti was arrested, Palestinian sources said, at the house of Palestinian Legislative Council member Ziad Abu Ein near Arafat's compound in central Ramallah.