Lebanese-French Artist Ali Cherri Files War Crime Complaint in Paris Over Israeli Strike

Ali Cherri filed a war crime complaint in Paris over an Israeli airstrike that killed his parents.

“Responding to the civil complaint filed before France’s War Crimes Unit by French-Lebanese artist and filmmaker Ali Cherri and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) regarding a November 2024 Israeli military attack on a civilian building in central Beirut which killed seven civilians, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Heba Morayef said: Amnesty’s research into the attack found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity at the time of the attack and concluded the strike should be investigated as a war crime”

Amnesty International

The complaint concerns Israel's bombing of a residential building just hours before a ceasefire.

Amnesty International

Seven civilians were killed, including Cherri's parents aged 86 and 76.

The complaint denounces bombing of a civilian object, which could constitute a war crime.

Amnesty International found no evidence of a military target in the vicinity of the strike.

The strike destroyed three floors of the apartment block with no evacuation warning.

Deadline

More than 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon during the conflict.

Cherri said we never thought anything like this could happen.

This is the first time a French court has taken a case over Israel’s bombing of Lebanon.

“Ali Shari, a French-Lebanese visual artist who lost his parents in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in Beirut in late 2024, turned to the French judiciary in an effort to open an investigation into 'war crimes'”

Euronews

Cherri said justice will not bring my parents back but hopes to break impunity.

The case could open a rare pathway for accountability.

Coverage varied between Western and West Asian outlets.