Amnesty International on Nov. 3 welcomed [8] the French War Crimes Unit's opening of a judicial investigation into a deadly Israeli strike on a civilian building in central Beirut in November 2024 as a critical step toward justice, truth, accountability and reparation. France launched the investigation after the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Ali Cherri, a French-Lebanese artist and filmmaker, jointly filed [9] a legal complaint.
Amnesty International’s regional director Heba Morayef stated:
The opening of this judicial investigation by the French War Crimes Unit is a critical, long-overdue step towards making a dent in the wall of pervasive impunity enjoyed by Israeli forces for war crimes committed in Lebanon… For victims and their families, this case offers a rare and vital avenue for truth, justice, and long-awaited accountability through a European court.
On Nov. 26, 2024, at approximately 5:30 p.m. local time—approximately 10.5 hours before a US- and French-brokered ceasefire [11] between Israel and Hezbollah took effect—an Israeli air-strike hit a 12-story residential apartment building in the Noueiri-Barbour neighborhood of central Beirut, killing at least seven civilians, including Cherri's parents and their live-in helper.
Amnesty International's investigation into the attack found that no appropriate advance warning was given to the civilians in the area, and there was no evidence proving military objectives were being carried out in the vicinity. As a result, Amnesty concluded there were reasonable grounds to suspect a breach of the IHL prohibition against directing attacks against civilian objects, and the attack must be investigated as a war crime.
Article 51 [12] of Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 protects the civilian population, including all individual civilians, from being the object of attack. Any acts or threats of violence of which the primary purpose is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.
Specifically, Article 51(4) holds that all indiscriminate attacks—acts carried out without careful thought, judgment, or selection, often causing random or unfair harm—against civilians are prohibited.
Amnesty International's investigation concluded that Israel's 2024 strike [13] in Beirut met the criteria for an indiscriminate attack against a civilian population, classifying it as a war crime. That finding will be examined by the French War Crimes Unit in the coming months.
Ali Cherri's dual French-Lebanese nationality allowed him to file the complaint before the French War Crimes Unit. Given that jurisdictional basis, the appointed investigative judges will therefore investigate the bombing of his Beirut apartment on charges of "intentionally directing an attack against a civilian object, amounting to a war crime," according to the case file.
Since October 2023, the death toll from Israeli attacks in Lebanon has reached 8,956, with 30,664 injured, according [14] to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, as of Oct. 30.
From JURIST [15], Nov. 5. Used with permission.
