French judges open inquiry into complaint of Israeli war crime

Seven civilians, including Ali Cherri's 87-year-old father and 77-year-old mother, were killed in the bombing of their 12-storey apartment building in central Beirut, according to the complaint seen by the French news agency AFP.

Cherri, a Paris-based artist and film-maker, filed the complaint as a civil party in April with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris Judicial Court has appointed two investigating judges to the case.

Prelude to Beirut attack

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian militants Hamas, opened a front against neighbouring Israel at the start of the Gaza war after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.

The hostilities, which escalated into open war in September 2024, have left more than 4,000 dead in Lebanon and forced more than a million people to flee.

The strike that killed Cherri's parents occurred just a few hours before the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect, the complaint states.

It cites detailed research by human rights group Amnesty International and the research agency Forensic Architecture into the incident.

Lebanon war reopens old divisions as fears grow for country's unity

"To our knowledge, this is the very first judicial investigation opened into the crimes committed by the Israeli army in Lebanon since October 2023," said  Clémence Bectarte, the coordinator of the FIDH Litigation Action Group.

"We hope this investigation will shed full light on the bombing of 26 November which we qualified as a war crime in our complaint."

Cherri said he had taken legal action for the dignity of all civilian victims.

"For nearly two years, I have been fighting... to ensure that the Israeli bombing that killed my parents and five other civilians does not go unpunished," he added.

"What happened to my parents is not an isolated case. I hope this investigation will help break the impunity enjoyed by Israeli officials responsible for attacks against civilians in Lebanon and Palestine." AFP said it had contacted the Israeli military for comment.

Several investigations underway

In another case, Mohamad H, a 42-year old French-Lebanese man, represented by lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, filed a complaint in June in Paris alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity after an Israeli air strike in April on a residential area in Tyre, southern Lebanon, killed his mother, sister, and two nephews.

Paris hosts Lebanon conference amid Israel-Hezbollah conflict

In another case, a French entrepreneur born in Lebanon, has accused the Israeli army of uprooting 600 century-old olive trees belonging to his family in a village in southern Lebanon.

France's National Anti-TerrorismProsecutor's Office, which handles war crimes, has opened an investigation into allegations of torture and war crimes related to the Israeli forces' interception of humanitarian flotillas bound for Gaza in 2025 and 2026.