France Opens War Crimes Investigation Into Beirut Deaths Of Artist-Filmmaker Ali Cherri’s Parents

The French War Crimes Unit has opened a judicial investigation into the Israeli army’s bombing of a residential building in Beirut in November 2024 in which seven civilians were killed, including the parents of Franco-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri.

The decision comes six months after Cherri, who is known in the film world for his Cannes Directors’ Fortnight-selected feature The Dam, and the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) filed an official complaint to the unit about the incident.

The case concerns the Israeli military’s bombing of a residential building in Beirut on November 26, 2024, just a few hours before a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was due to come into effect.

The strike destroyed three floors of the apartment block with Cherri’s father and mother, Mahmoud Naim Cherri and Nadira Hayek, as well as a domestic worker employed by the couple, Birki Negesa, among the seven civilians who were killed.

Two investigating judges from the French War Crimes Unit have been appointed to investigate the case.

“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, lawyer and coordinator of the FIDH Litigation Action Group.

“We hope that this investigation will shed full light on the bombing of 26 November 2024, which we qualified as a war crime in our complaint.”

Cherri, who divides his time between Paris and Beirut, is one of Lebanon’s best-known contemporary artists, whose work has shown at the Guggenheim, Tate Modern and the Jeu de Paume among many other galleries.

As he holds dual French and Lebanese nationality, the judicial investigation will focus only on the bombing of his apartment. The French courts do not have jurisdiction over the events that led to the deaths of the victims, who were not French nationals.

“The opening of this judicial investigation marks another important step in our fight against impunity and our struggle for justice for those who were killed. For my family and me, it is essential that this investigation establish responsibility and ensure that those who ordered and carried out this bombing are held accountable for their actions.” said Cherri.

Tensions between Israel and militant group Hezbollah ratcheted up in 2023 when the latter intensified attacks along Israel’s northern border in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks on the south of the country.

Israel launched a military campaign in Lebanon in September 2024, involving aerial bombardments and a ground invasion, which killed more than 4,000 people and displaced another one million inhabitants.

The Israeli military has been accused of targeting buildings in Lebanon in a bid to take out Hezbollah militant operatives in full knowledge that civilians would also be caught in the strike.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since November 2024, with the Israeli army still occupying parts of southern Lebanon and sporadic skirmishes.