A war crimes complaint has been filed in France over an Israeli airstrike that destroyed a residential building in Beirut's Noueiri neighbourhood on 26 November 2024, killing seven civilians, including the parents of French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri. The strike occurred around 5:30pm, just hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was set to begin. Cherri, alongside the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), submitted the complaint to France's war crimes unit, seeking an investigation into the attack. Among the dead were Cherri's parents, Mahmoud Naim Cherri, 88, and Nadira Hayek, 78, as well as domestic worker Birki Negesa and at least four other residents. The top floors of the building, including Cherri's ninth-floor apartment, were completely destroyed.
The complaint cites investigations by Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture, which found no evidence of a military target in or near the building at the time of the strike and noted that residents received no advance warning. Under French law, bombing a civilian structure without military justification may constitute a war crime. FIDH argues that while French courts lack jurisdiction over the victims' deaths—none were French nationals—Cherri's dual French-Lebanese citizenship allows authorities to investigate the destruction of his property. No legal action has been initiated in Lebanon or any other country regarding the incident. "We want an investigation to help us clear up the facts and understand why civilians were targeted in this horrific way," Cherri told The Associated Press. Heba Morayef, Amnesty International's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said a French investigation would offer a rare chance to scrutinize Israel's conduct in a European legal setting.
When Ali Cherri says he is acting as "a son, a citizen and a victim," he is forcing a reckoning that goes beyond personal loss — it challenges the assumption that powerful militaries can operate without legal consequence in foreign courts. The fact that French jurisdiction hinges on property ownership, not human life, exposes how justice for civilians in conflict zones remains tethered to technicalities of nationality and law rather than moral clarity. If French prosecutors open a case, it won't bring back the dead, but it could disrupt the pattern of unchecked military actions masked as precision warfare. That alone makes this complaint dangerous — not for any state, but for the silence that protects them.
