Lebanese environmental activist Mona Khalil, 76, died after her home on Mansouri beach—near the southern city of Tyre—was struck during Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon two weeks ago.
Khalil’s death comes amid a surge of air strikes that have intensified across the region, raising concerns about renewed violence and the safety of civilians and wildlife alike.
She had devoted more than a quarter‑century to protecting endangered sea turtles that nest along Lebanon’s south coast. Her first encounter with a green turtle laying eggs on Mansouri in 1999 inspired her lifelong mission to safeguard these reptiles.
In 2000 she co‑founded the Orange House Project, an eco‑tourism and conservation hub that evolved into a centre for marine research, environmental education and the protection of coastal ecosystems.
Khalil monitored nesting sites, documented marine life and campaigned against coastal development, pollution and destructive fishing practices, thereby helping secure protected status for parts of Lebanon’s shoreline.
Despite previous damage to her home during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, she refused to leave the beach she had spent years preserving, seeing her presence as a symbolic commitment to the region’s natural heritage.
Friends and colleagues described her as a “deeply committed environmental defender” whose passion extended from the beach to the wider community. She “barricaded herself inside her house, received no visitors and believed she was safe as a civilian” (Maha Joumaa).
Her legacy will endure through the conservation movement she helped build and the generations of turtles that continue to return to Lebanon’s shores, leaving a lasting imprint on environmental activism in the region.
