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French War-Crimes Complaint Seeks Probe of 2024 Beirut Strike That Killed Artist Ali Cherri’s Parents

Rights groups say the Paris filing uses rare extraterritorial powers to pursue accountability where no domestic case exists.

Overview

  • Ali Cherri and the International Federation for Human Rights filed the complaint Thursday with France’s War Crimes Unit, targeting the November 26, 2024 bombing of a Noueiri apartment block that killed seven people and destroyed several floors.
  • The filing argues the strike on a residential building could be a war crime under French and international law, citing Amnesty’s finding of no military target nearby and no effective warning to civilians.
  • Forensic Architecture reconstructed the blast using satellite images, witness accounts, and video, and reported identifying remnants of a GBU-39 munition widely documented as used by Israel’s air force.
  • FIDH says French jurisdiction flows from Cherri’s French nationality and his ownership of the bombed apartment, not the killings of his non-French parents.
  • The case lands as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has surged since early March, with Lebanese authorities reporting more than 1,200 dead and over a million displaced, and photographer Mohamad Shehab—who documented the apartment—killed in a March 11 strike.