Riyad al-Amour dies after years of torture in Israeli prisons

After years of systematic torture and medical neglect in Israeli occupation prisons, former Palestinian political prisoner, Riyad al-Amour, has died.

Riyad al-Amour — 23 years of torture and abuse in Israeli occupation prisons

56-year-old Riyad al-Amour, from the village of Tuqu’ in Bethlehem, was arrested in 2002 and spent 23 years behind bars, before being released and exiled to Egypt as part of the most recent prisoner exchange during the so-called ceasefire agreement in October 2025.

In a statement, on 3 April, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society & Commission of Detainees’ Affairs said they “hold occupation authorities fully responsible for his death”. Al Amour endured prolonged interrogations and severe torture while in prison, causing him to lose hearing in one of his ears. He also suffered serious medical neglect, and was denied a new pacemaker by the occupation’s prison services for more than a decade.

 His health was critical when he was released so he underwent multiple surgeries in the brief six months he spent outside prison before passing away.

The most violent period in the Palestinian prisoner movement has been since October 2023

Despite the harsh conditions he faced and the torture he endured, al Amour devoted years of his detention to serving fellow sick prisoners in the “Ramla Prison Clinic,” where he spent most of his imprisonment.

The last two years has become the most violent in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel revealed the details of almost 100 Palestinian prisoners killed while in Israeli occupation detention, since 7 October, 2023. All died from medical neglect, malnutrition, assault or torture.

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) claims that the Israeli occupation’s torture and neglect of Palestinian prisoners is a “deliberate state policy of collective punishment“.

His death comes just days after the Israeli occupation’s approval of a law which legalises the execution of Palestinian political prisoners.

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