Barghouti is accused of complicity in attacks by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) movement in which 26 Israelis were killed. Barghouti was Fatah's West Bank leader when he was snatched by troops a year ago. Seen as a possible Arafat successor, he says is a political leader and not involved in violence.
The trial started as Israeli forces, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, stormed a small village in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), killing two Palestinians, including a boy, and wounding 16, hospital officials said.
An American peace activist who was allegedly shot in the face by Israeli troops while acting as a "human shield" in the West Bank town of Jenin remained in serious condition in an Israeli hospital Sunday, a fellow member of the International Solidarity Movement said.
In Tel Aviv, Barghouti refused to mount a defense, saying the judges have no jurisdiction because he is a member of the Palestinian parliament. Turning to the bench, he said: "This court only represents the Israeli occupation. I do not relate to this dirty process of lies."
Three of his alleged deputies, all captured by Israel in recent months, refused to comply with an order to stand.
One, Nasser Abu Hmeid, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade militia with links to Fatah, said he would not speak to the court and demonstratively put his hands over his ears, causing Barghouti to grin.
Another alleged militiaman, Ismail Ghadaida, ripped up a document he was handed. The prosecution played a videotape of Ghadaida's interrogation during which Barghouti's name came up frequently.
At one point, the hearing was closed to the public, to allow investigators from Israel's Shin Bet security service to testify.
Barghouti has said the Palestinians have the right to use force in resisting Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but he backs moving toward a peace deal that would set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The head of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s office, Dov Weisglass, said Saturday that Israel will reject a U.S.-backed "road map" to Palestinian statehood if it is asked to compromise on security issues, such as the elimination and disarmament of what it calls Palestinian terrorist groups.
In the Gaza Strip village of Massader, troops took up sniper positions on rooftops and called from loudspeakers for the men to gather in the village square while soldiers stormed houses in an apparent search for militants, Mayor Ayman Massader said.
Palestinians use the village, which is in central Gaza, to fire mortars at Jewish settlements in the area, the army said.
In one incident, Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at troops, who returned fire, killing an armed man, the army said. Hospital officials confirmed the death of a 23-year-old Palestinian, but said he did not have weapons on him.
Later Sunday, hundreds of youngsters threw stones at armored vehicles, drawing fire that killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded 16, all under the age of 18, doctors said. They said two boys, ages 16 and 18, were in critical condition.
The army often raids Palestinian towns and villages in the Gaza Strip as part of what it calls its war on terrorism.
Meanwhile, Brian Avery, 24, from Albuquerque, N.M., a member of the Palestinian-backed International Solidarity Movement, was being treated in a hospital in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa.
Fellow activists say Avery was shot in the face by troops in an armored personnel carrier. But the army said a gunbattle with Palestinians was going on in the area and it was unclear who shot Avery.
"Apparently he's going to live, but his face has been shattered," Star Hawk, another activist, told Israel Radio.
Another American member of the group was killed on March 16 while trying to stop an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip from demolishing a Palestinian home. She fell in front of the vehicle, which ran over her and then backed up, witnesses said. The army said it was an accident.
