Lebanese community mourns turtle conservationist killed in Israeli strike
Mona Khalil, a 77-year-old sea-turtle advocate, died from injuries sustained in an Israeli attack on her home, prompting gatherings in Beirut to honor her work.
Mourners gathered in Beirut on Sunday to honor Mona Khalil, a 77-year-old Lebanese conservationist who died after being wounded in an Israeli strike on her home in al-Mansouri, Tyre province, on June 4. Khalil, who had lived in Lebanon for decades after returning from the Netherlands, spent more than 20 years protecting loggerhead and green sea turtles along the country’s southern coast. She co-founded the Orange House Project, a small conservation hub and ecotourism site that served as a refuge for endangered turtles and a training centre for volunteers monitoring nesting activity.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1949, Khalil held both Dutch and Lebanese citizenship. Her commitment to turtle conservation began after a 1999 encounter with a nesting turtle on al-Mansouri beach, leading her to patrol the shoreline each season, mark tracks and relocate vulnerable nests away from human disturbance and light pollution.
Journalist and environmental activist Fadia Jomaa, who first met Khalil in 2016, recalled that Khalil initially refused to leave the beach during the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah conflict, only evacuating after persuasion by the Lebanese army. > "She was the last one to leave the area," Jomaa said.
Khalil’s burial location remains uncertain due to security conditions in the south, according to Jomaa.
