As the Palestinian death toll in the Second Intifada increased, Barghouti called for Palestinians to target Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza. During the second intifada Barghouti was accused by Israel of being a senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an organization which conducted numerous attacks and suicide bombings on civilians both within and outside of Israel proper, and has been accused of having directed some of these bombings personally. While some Palestinian militants advocated adopting tactics based on those used by Hezbollah to drive the Israeli army out of Lebanon, Barghouti was seen as less radical, supporting violent actions based on popular movements but exclusively within the Palestinian territories. According to National Public Radio, Barghouti "cut his ideological teeth as the political leader of Fatah's armed militant wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Israel accused him of founding the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and attempted to assassinate him in 2001. The missile hit his bodyguard's car, killing the bodyguard. Barghouti survived but was arrested by the Israeli Army in Ramallah, on 15 April 2002 and transferred to the 'Russian Compound' police station in Jerusalem. Amos Harel wrote in "Haaretz" that Barghouti was arrested by soldiers of the Duchifat Battalion who had approached the building hidden in an ambulance to avoid detection: "The Duchifat soldiers were squeezed into a protected ambulance in order to arrive as quickly as possible at the house where Barghouti was hiding, and to seal it off." Several months later, he was indicted in an Israeli civilian court on 26 charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from attacks carried out by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Marwan Barghouti refused to present a defense to the charges brought against him, maintaining throughout that the trial was illegal and illegitimate. The Israeli verdict against him in effect removed Arafat's only political rival. Barghouti stressed that he supported armed resistance to the Israeli occupation, but condemned attacks on civilians inside Israel. According to the case argued by Israel at his trial, he had supported and authorized such attacks. On 20 May 2004, he was convicted of five counts of murder: authorizing and organizing the murder of Georgios Tsibouktzakis, a shooting adjacent to Giv'at Ze'ev in which a civilian was killed, and the Seafood Market attack in Tel Aviv in which three civilians were killed.