Lebanese conservationist Mona Khalil killed in Tyre strike

Mona Khalil, 76, the Lebanese ecologist credited with building sea turtle conservation across southern Lebanon, died Friday after an Israeli airstrike hit her beachside home near Tyre. Her relatives said her housekeeper, Ethiopian, was injured less severely. T

On an evening years ago. Mona Khalil was drinking a beer on a beach near Tyre when a female green sea turtle threw sand as it laid eggs. That moment—simple. coastal. and alive with nesting—became the start of the decades-long work that would make her one of southern Lebanon’s best-known marine conservation voices.

Khalil, 76, died Friday after an Israeli airstrike hit her beachside home two weeks earlier. The house, known as the “Orange House,” stood just steps from al-Mansouri beach in the southern port city of Tyre. Her relatives said the only other person in the home at the time. her Ethiopian housekeeper. sustained less-severe injuries in the attack.

Two weeks after the strike, the Israeli military said last week, in response to an NPR query, that it had no indication it had hit the house but was reviewing its records. It did not respond to a query about when the review might be completed.

In the wider war that began March 2. Israel has invaded southern Lebanon and says it is attacking Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure. The Lebanese health ministry says more than 4. 000 people have been killed since the war began. including at least 600 women and children. Israel says 35 soldiers and a military contractor along with two civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks.

Fadia Joumaa, a former volunteer who later took over Khalil’s turtle conservation effort, said Khalil had vowed to stay in her home during the fighting. Joumaa said Khalil believed she was safe because she was a civilian and there were were no nearby targets.

Khalil’s conservation work was built around the turtles that return. hundreds of miles back to the beaches where they were born. It was also built around people. She trained a generation of volunteers in ecological conservation. protecting sea turtle nesting grounds and the Mediterranean coastline of southern Lebanon.

The threats to hatchlings are relentless. Human encroachment. trash in the ocean. and animal predators that eat eggs and hatchlings mean newly hatched turtles have only about a 1 in 1. 000 chance of surviving to adulthood. Volunteers patrol for clutches of eggs laid at night in late summer. They protect the nests with wire mesh, and when the hatchlings emerge, they help the tiny turtles reach the water.

Rami Khachab. 32. a herpetologist originally from al-Mansouri. said he began volunteering in high school. going out with Khalil before dawn to walk the beaches looking for turtle nests. He tied the movement’s personal beginning to the moment Khalil first became connected to the creatures: after her introduction to the turtles during her evening drink on the beach roughly 25 years ago. he said she reached out to European turtle protection organizations to learn everything she could about green sea and loggerhead turtles. She then began monitoring nests, collecting data, and working to keep the nests safe.

Her legacy is credited not just to conservation, but to community. The environmental group Green Southerners said in a statement that “through the Orange House. she inspired generations of Lebanese to value and protect their natural heritage and coastal ecosystems.” It called her one of Lebanon’s most respected voices for marine conservation and biodiversity protection. and urged that those responsible for the killings of Khalil and other civilians be held accountable.

Even before she stepped away from the work, her house itself had become part of the effort. Joumaa, a Lebanese journalist, said she first met Khalil while intending to do a story on her. Khalil told her. “You have to sweat and work hard the way I do before writing a single word.” Joumaa said she did not write the story. choosing instead to spend years volunteering with Khalil before Khalil retired in 2020. By then. Joumaa said. Khalil had turned the Orange House into an ecotourism guesthouse—an educational space for children and a sea turtle observation point.

Joumaa also said Khalil’s opposition to the privatization of beaches and building along the southern coast helped push turtle nesting grounds into an officially recognized community-based conservation area. The work included a successful campaign to ban the use of dynamite in fishing.

But success did not mean safety. Joumaa recalled that the effort sometimes came under direct threat. “Mona was a fighter. She did not like diplomacy. There were times when they shot at her house,” she said, referring to local opponents. Joumaa added that Khalil had often told her, “Defend the beach, defend the turtles, defend your country.”.

The Orange House now lies behind the headlines of a war that has already claimed thousands of lives. And for the people who learned to protect the nesting beaches with wire mesh. night watches. and early-morning walks. Khalil’s death lands as both a loss of a scientist and a loss of a refuge—one designed for turtles. but built by hands that insisted the coast belongs to everyone.

Mona Khalil Lebanese conservationist Tyre Orange House sea turtles green sea turtle loggerhead ecological conservation Israeli airstrike southern Lebanon al-Mansouri beach Green Southerners Fadia Joumaa Rami Khachab