Two investigating judges in Paris have been appointed to examine a war crimes complaint against the Israeli military over a deadly airstrike in Beirut in 2024, according to the lawyer representing the complainant.
French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, whose parents were killed in the strike, filed the complaint this year as a civil party, with support from the International Federation for Human Rights, his lawyer, Clemence Bectarte, said.
The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court has assigned two investigating judges to the case. Bectarte described the development as a first in proceedings concerning alleged war crimes by Israeli forces in Lebanon.
Hezbollah became involved in hostilities with Israel following the outbreak of the Gaza war after the October 7, 2023 attacks. The fighting escalated into an open conflict in September 2024, leaving more than 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and displacing over one million others.
According to the complaint, seven civilians, including Cherri’s parents, aged 87 and 77, were killed when a 12-storey residential building in central Beirut was bombed on November 26, 2024. Three floors of the building were destroyed.
The complaint stated that the strike took place just hours before a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect. It also referred to investigations conducted by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture into the incident.
The Israeli military was approached for comment.
Cherri said he had pursued legal action to uphold the dignity of all civilian victims. He said he had spent nearly two years seeking accountability for the bombing that killed his parents and five other civilians.
He added that the incident was not isolated and expressed hope that the investigation would help address what he described as impunity for Israeli officials responsible for attacks on civilians in Lebanon and Palestine.
Although the investigation marks a significant development in efforts to pursue alleged war crimes by Israeli forces in Lebanon, several other cases are also pending.
French-Lebanese national Mohamad H., represented by lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, has sought legal action after losing his mother, sister and two nephews in Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre during the night of April 16-17.
In a separate case, a French entrepreneur of Lebanese origin has accused the Israeli military of uprooting around 600-year-old olive trees belonging to his family in a village in southern Lebanon.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), which is responsible for handling war crimes cases, has also opened an investigation into allegations of torture and war crimes linked to Israeli forces’ interception of humanitarian flotillas heading towards Gaza in 2025 and 2026.
Additionally, the prosecutor’s office has asked a Paris judge to launch a war crimes investigation into the deaths of two French children in an Israeli bombing in Gaza in October 2023.
However, sources familiar with the case said prosecutors had ruled out pursuing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in that matter.
