Lebanese turtle conservationist dies after Israeli strike

Mona Khalil, a pioneering Lebanese conservationist who turned a beachside family home into a sanctuary for endangered sea turtles, has died from wounds suffered when an Israeli airstrike hit her home on Lebanon’s southern coast.

Khalil died Friday, more than two weeks after the June 4 attack on the Orange House, a conservation hub and ecotourism site steps from al-Mansouri beach near Tyre. NPR reported her age as 76; Al Jazeera reported she was 77. Her Ethiopian housekeeper was also injured, less severely, Khalil’s relatives told NPR. The two women were the only people inside the house.

The Israeli military told NPR last week it had no indication it had struck the house but was reviewing its records. It did not respond to a question about when that review might be completed.

Mourners gathered in Beirut on Sunday after news of Khalil’s death prompted grief among environmentalists, volunteers and former colleagues who had worked with her over more than two decades. The Orange House Project became a refuge for endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles and a training ground for volunteers who documented nesting along the Mediterranean coast.

Khalil’s work began after a chance encounter on al-Mansouri beach in 1999, when a female turtle emerging from the sea to lay eggs threw sand over her as she sat drinking a beer, according to a former volunteer. She later contacted European turtle protection groups, learned how to monitor nests and began collecting data and protecting eggs from predators, coastal development, trash and human activity.

Each nesting season, Khalil and her volunteers patrolled the beach at night or before dawn, marked turtle tracks in the sand and protected clutches of eggs with wire mesh. They also helped hatchlings reach the sea. Newly hatched turtles face steep odds: NPR reported that only about 1 in 1,000 survive to adulthood.

“Through the Orange House, she inspired generations of Lebanese to value and protect their natural heritage and coastal ecosystems. Her work made her one of Lebanon’s most respected voices for marine conservation and biodiversity protection,” the environmental group Green Southerners said. The group called for those responsible for the killings of Khalil and other civilians to be held accountable.

Fadia Joumaa, a journalist and environmental activist who later took over the turtle conservation effort, first approached Khalil intending to write about her. “You have to sweat and work hard the way I do before writing a single word,” Joumaa recalled Khalil telling her. Joumaa said she never wrote the story and instead volunteered with Khalil for years.

Khalil retired in 2020, after transforming the Orange House into an educational space for children, a guesthouse and a sea turtle observation point. Joumaa said Khalil’s campaigns against beach privatization and coastal construction helped turn the nesting grounds into an officially recognized community-based conservation area. She also worked on a successful campaign to ban dynamite fishing.

“Mona was a fighter. She did not like diplomacy,” Joumaa told NPR, saying local opponents had at times shot at Khalil’s house. “She always told me: Defend the beach, defend the turtles, defend your country.”

Al Jazeera reported that Khalil was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1949, held both Dutch and Lebanese citizenship, and had lived in the Netherlands before returning to Lebanon and settling in what had been her grandmother’s home.

Israel has invaded southern Lebanon and says it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 4,000 people have been killed since the war began on March 2, including at least 600 women and children. Israel says Hezbollah attacks have killed 35 soldiers, a military contractor and two civilians.

Joumaa said Khalil had vowed to remain at the Orange House during the fighting because she believed she was safe as a civilian and there were no nearby targets. During an earlier war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024, Al Jazeera reported, the Lebanese army ultimately persuaded her to evacuate. “She was the last one to leave the area,” Joumaa said.

“She used to say, ‘My soul will stay here,’” Joumaa told Al Jazeera, recalling Khalil pointing to an olive tree or a hill overlooking the beach. “She used to say, ‘This is where you will bury me.’” Joumaa said where Khalil will be buried remains uncertain because of the security situation in the area.