French judicial authorities have launched a formal investigation into a war crimes complaint regarding an Israeli strike on a residential building in Lebanon. Lawyer Clemence Bectarte confirmed the news on Tuesday in Paris.
The case stems from a complaint filed this year by French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri. Cherri lost his parents in a Beirut strike in 2024. He brought the legal action as a civil party alongside the International Federation for Human Rights.
The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court appointed two investigating judges to handle the matter. Bectarte described the decision as a first.
Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The conflict escalated into open war in September 2024, killing more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displacing over a million residents.
Seven civilians died when a bombing struck a 12-story apartment building in central Beirut on November 26, 2024. The victims included Cherri’s father and mother, aged 87 and 77. Three floors of the building were destroyed in the attack.
The complaint notes that the strike happened just hours before a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. The filing cites detailed research into the incident conducted by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture.
Cherri said he pursued legal action to uphold the dignity of all civilian victims. He had been fighting for nearly two years to ensure the bombing does not go unpunished. He added that he hopes the inquiry will break the impunity enjoyed by officials responsible for attacks against civilians in Lebanon and Palestine.
Several other legal actions are pending in France. A French-Lebanese man represented by lawyer Emmanuel Daoud sought action after losing his mother, sister, and two nephews in strikes on the southern city of Tyre in April. Another French entrepreneur accused the Israeli army of uprooting hundreds of centuries-old olive trees belonging to his family in a southern Lebanese village.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into allegations of torture and war crimes regarding the interception of humanitarian flotillas bound for Gaza. The same office also asked a Paris judge to open a war crimes inquiry into the deaths of two French children in an Israeli bombing in Gaza in October 2023, while ruling out charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
