Lebanese sea-turtle conservationist Mona Khalil dies of injuries from an Israeli strike
Mona Khalil , a 77-year-old Dutch-Lebanese conservationist, died on June 20 of injuries she sustained when an Israeli strike hit her home in the southern village of al-Mansouri, near Tyre, on June 4. She had spent more than two decades protecting endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles along Lebanon’s coast.
Khalil founded the Orange House Project in 1999 after finding a turtle nesting on the al-Mansouri beach. The site became a sanctuary, ecotourism stop and volunteer training center; each season she and volunteers patrolled the shore at night to mark and relocate vulnerable nests away from human activity and light pollution. Mourners gathered this week to remember her, recalling a remark she often made about the place: “My soul will stay here.”
Her death adds to the civilian toll of continued Israeli operations in southern Lebanon, which have persisted alongside the US-Iran ceasefire framework and remain the main point of friction in negotiations over that deal.