PARIS: French judges have opened a war crimes investigation into a 2024 Israeli strike on a Beirut apartment building, lawyer Clemence Bectarte said on Tuesday.
The Paris Judicial Court’s crimes against humanity unit has appointed two investigating judges to examine the complaint.
French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri filed the case this year with the International Federation for Human Rights. Cherri’s parents were among seven civilians killed in the November 26, 2024 bombing, according to the complaint.
The attack destroyed three floors of their 12-storey residential building in central Beirut. The strike occurred hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, the complaint said.
It cites research by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture into the bombing. Bectarte described the judicial investigation as a first for alleged war crimes involving Israeli forces in Lebanon.
Cherri said he pursued legal action “for the dignity of all civilian victims”. Other complaints involving Israeli military operations are also pending in France.
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French-Lebanese man Mohamad H. has sought legal action after losing four relatives in strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Another complainant has accused Israeli forces of uprooting his family’s olive trees in southern Lebanon.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office is investigating allegations of torture and war crimes involving Israeli interceptions of Gaza-bound humanitarian flotillas in 2025 and 2026.
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Prosecutors have also requested a war crimes investigation into the deaths of two French children in an October 2023 Israeli bombing in Gaza. They ruled out genocide and crimes against humanity charges in that case.
(With additional input from AFP)
