French Lebanese artist and filmmaker Ali Cherri, together with the International Federation for Human Rights, has lodged a civil complaint in France over a 2024 Israeli airstrike on Beirut that killed seven civilians, including his parents. The complaint, filed on April 2 in a French court with its specialized war crimes unit and brought “against persons unknown,” condemns the Israeli army’s targeting of a civilian object as a war crime under both French criminal law and international humanitarian law.

On November 26, 2024, Israeli forces bombed a residential building in Noueiri, a neighborhood in central Beirut, destroying the artist’s family home, and killing his mother and father, Nadira Hayek and Mahmoud Naim Cherri, as well as their domestic helper Birki Negesa. No evacuation warning was issued in advance, and the strike happened just a few hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect, ending a 13-month conflict that began in October 2023 and killed approximately 4,000 Lebanese civilians.

Cherri submitted his petition along with numerous findings by research groups and NGOs, including Forensic Architecture’s digital spatial reconstruction of the blast and documentation from Amnesty International. The latter had published a report on February 24, pointing to Israel’s repeated military onslaught on Lebanese residential areas, affirming that there is “reasonable basis to conclude the Israeli military violated international humanitarian law.” The organization added that there was no evidence of a military target inside or around the affected building at the time of the assault. Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, commented in a recent missive that “[t]his case could offer some form of accountability and reparation to victims of this deadly attack.”

In a press release, Cherri stated: “As a son, a citizen, and a victim, it is my duty to ensure that this war crime committed by the Israeli army is recognized for what it is, so that it may be brought to justice—for my parents and for all the civilians killed that day. Justice cannot undo death, but seeking justice means refusing to let impunity lead to the destruction of other lives.”

Cherri’s case marks the first-ever attempt to bring Israeli military offenses in Lebanon to French judicial authorities, which can investigate grave crimes committed abroad involving French nationals.

Yuqian Fan is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.