Members of Fatah’s leadership have spent the past few weeks mourning Palestinian terrorist Riyad Al-Amour, who passed away in Egypt at the beginning of the month, blaming Israel for his death despite the terrorist’s release in the October 2025 deal.
Amour was said to have died after a long illness, which the Palestinian Authority news site WAFA claimed was worsened by years of “medical neglect” during Israeli detention. The site claimed he waited more than a decade for a pacemaker and was tortured and held in harsh conditions during the detention.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas established an investigative committee to establish the cause of Amour’s death, PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported on April 4. Palestinian medical professional Dr. Fadi Kassab was suspended from duty during the investigation, Palestinian Media Watch told The Jerusalem Post. The Post was unable to locate said report.
“The Palestinian Authority's default is to publicly blame Israel first for everything wrong in the PA, especially for all its own failings,” Itamar Marcus, the founder of PMW, told the Post. “In this case, they clearly were negligent in the terrorist’s death, or they would not have suspended the PA’s doctor. Yet its statements for the world press are to blame Israel.”
The 53-year-old terrorist was said to have suffered complications from a recent surgery in Egypt, resulting in him being placed in an intensive care unit.
Amour was sentenced to serve 11 life sentences for leading terror cells in carrying out shooting and kidnapping attacks between 2000 and 2002, resulting in the deaths of nine Israelis, and for the 2002 abduction and murder of 72-year-old Avi Boaz. Boaz, an American-Israeli who had warm relations with the Palestinian community in Beit Jala, was abducted at gunpoint from a PA checkpoint under the watch of Palestinian police and shot to death in Beit Sahur, according to the foreign ministry.
Terrorist honored with mourning tent
The PA honored Amour with a "mourning tent,” attended by Fatah’s top officials, including Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, according to PMW.
"The most sacred thing in the eyes of the Palestinians is those who sacrificed their lives and their freedom – our Martyrs," Rajoub told a reporter when asked about the tent.
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki posted on Facebook, "Fatah Central Committee members Abbas Zaki and Tawfiq Tirawi expressed their condolences over the death of released prisoner Riyad Al-Amour during a visit to the mourners' house in Bethlehem. The delegation expressed its deep sorrow over the death as a Martyr of Al-Amour, and emphasized that the sacrifice of the prisoners will remain present in the hearts of our people and that the struggle for freedom and independence must continue."
Fatah Commission of Information and Culture’s Facebook page also posted a message mourning the terrorist.
“Al-Amour died while being distanced from his homeland, after a path of struggle in which he constituted an example of sacrifice, courage, and perseverance,” the official page published. “Martyr Al-Amour joined Fatah in his youth and added that he did not hesitate to fulfill his national duty against the occupation until he was imprisoned in the occupation's prisons, where he spent 23 years.”
PMW noted that it is unclear whether Amour’s family will be entitled to continued payments for his death, though it indicated that placing the blame on Israel would entitle them to such funds. At the time of his release, according to the American paper, the Washington Free Beacon, he left prison with just short of NIS 1.3 million in his bank account.
While Fatah officials blamed Israel for the terrorist’s death, Hamas-linked media blamed the PA. The Quds News Network, under the headline "Exiled Fatah [prisoner] in Egypt to Quds: Intentional neglect, without insurance or salary – this is how Martyr Al-Amour ascended to Heaven," reported that Amour died as “a result of hunger and illness, due to medical neglect by the Palestinian [PA] embassy in Cairo, and this was after being exiled.”
Without medical insurance, the outlet reported that Amour was made to wait an extended period before being given medical treatment, and did not receive a fast enough response from Dr. Kassab.