Riyad Dahalla Ahmed Al-Amour, 56, died yesterday, Friday, from heart disease in a hospital bed in Cairo, Egypt. Al-Amour was released in the latest hostage deal with Israel and deported to Egypt, after being sentenced to 11 life terms for his role in the murder of nine Israelis – soldiers and civilians – including an architect who believed in coexistence and worked with Palestinians, and a lieutenant colonel in an IDF intelligence unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the murders were carried out around Jerusalem by a Fatah cell from Bethlehem led by Al-Amour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al-Amour, a resident of the town of Tuqu\u2019 near Bethlehem, was a senior figure in Tanzim, the military wing of Fatah, in the Bethlehem area. In the early 2000s, he led a Bethlehem-based cell that carried out a series of attacks in which nine Israelis – soldiers and civilians – were killed. All the attacks took place around Jerusalem, including near Rachel\u2019s Tomb, at the Al-Khader checkpoint, in Beit Sahour, and along the tunnels road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to killing Israeli civilians, members of the cell also killed three Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. They also fired at the Gilo neighborhood in southern Jerusalem. Al-Amour was captured in May 2002 and sentenced to 11 life terms. He served about 23 years in prison before being released in October 2025 as part of one phase of the hostage deal. After his release, his health deteriorated and he was hospitalized in Cairo due to heart disease. As noted, he died yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of the attacks carried out by the cell, architect Avi Boaz, 71, originally from the United States, was murdered. He had immigrated to Israel, lived in Ma\u2019ale Adumim, and worked as an independent architect. Boaz strongly believed in peace and coexistence and felt he contributed to it through his work. He was never afraid to travel to Bethlehem and its surroundings, and at times, during closures, used his American passport. For a long period, he partnered with an engineer from Bethlehem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On January 15, 2002, Boaz traveled to the community of Har Gilo. At the Beit Jala checkpoint, in front of Palestinian police officers, members of Al-Amour\u2019s cell abducted him. They drove him to nearby Beit Sahour, where they shot him dead and fled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another attack attributed to the cell took place on January 14, 2001, in which Lieutenant Colonel Yehuda Adri, 45, was killed. Adri, also a resident of Ma\u2019ale Adumim, served as a senior agent handler in Unit 504 – the human intelligence unit of Israeli Military Intelligence. On the day of the murder, Adri had arranged to meet an agent he handled. During the meeting, he was shot at close range near the tunnels road connecting southern Jerusalem with the Gush Etzion area. The incident, which caused shock, led to an in-depth IDF investigation. Adri\u2019s case became known as a “honey trap” affair. The handgun used by the agent who betrayed him was supplied by Al-Amour\u2019s cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Riyad Dahalla Ahmed Al-Amour, 56, died yesterday, Friday, from heart disease in a hospital bed in Cairo, Egypt. Al-Amour was released in the latest hostage deal with Israel and deported to Egypt, after being sentenced to 11 life terms for his role in the murder of nine Israelis – soldiers and civilians – including an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":179932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9320","_seopress_titles_title":"End of Jerusalem attack figure: died after release","_seopress_titles_desc":"Riyad Dahalla Ahmed Al-Amour, a commander of a cell responsible for deadly attacks around Jerusalem, has died in Cairo after being released in the hostage deal","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,184,68],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-179931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking","8":"category-184","9":"category-68"},"acf":{"subtitle":"Riyad Dahalla Ahmed Al-Amour, a commander of a cell responsible for deadly attacks around Jerusalem, has died in Cairo after being released in the hostage deal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179931"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179941,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179931\/revisions\/179941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerusalem-online.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}