Israel murdered 76-year-old marine conservationist Mona Khalil in Lebanon
This is Mona Khalil, who Israel murdered in a bombing on Friday. She was 76 years old and dedicated her life to protecting marine life in Southern Lebanon. She ran the Orange House, a space dedicated to protecting wildlife and teaching people conservation skills. It was also a refuge for queer people, who she welcomed. She is one of the over 4,000 people who Israel has killed in Lebanon.
There are truly no words. Not for the scale of loss. Not for the injustice of nations which deemed her life and the lives of so many Lebanese, Palestinian, and Iranian people expendable. Her life mattered. It matters. Do not become numb to the slaughter that our governments and our taxes carry out. It is our obligation to fight for justice for Mona and for every person murdered in this despicable war.
For a quarter century, Ms. Khalil ran a guesthouse and worked to protect endangered sea turtles who every summer lay their eggs on a stretch of beach near Tyre, Lebanon.
On June 4, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has taken so many civilian lives in recent months caught up to her. She was wounded in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, and on Friday, she died of her injuries at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, a close friend, Fadia Jomaa, said.
Mona Khalil, who had refused to leave the beach she had spent years protecting, died from her injuries after the Israeli strike.
Headline: Lebanese turtle conservationist Mona Khalil killed by Israeli strike
Publisher: BBC
Date published: 20 June 2026
Selected text from article:
Lebanese environmental activist Mona Khalil, whose work helped turn a stretch of coastline in southern Lebanon into one of the eastern Mediterranean's most important nesting sites for endangered sea turtles, has died after being wounded in an Israeli strike.
Khalil, 76, was injured when her house on Mansouri beach, near the southern city of Tyre, was hit during Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon two weeks ago.
She died on Friday after several days in hospital, according to a local environmental group.
[...]
For more than 25 years, Khalil dedicated herself to protecting endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles that nest along Lebanon's southern coast.
Her conservation work began after what her loved ones described as a life-changing encounter with a turtle laying eggs on Mansouri beach in 1999.
A refugee of the Lebanese civil war, Khalil was living in the Netherlands but had returned to visit her family's seaside home.
She was on the beach one night and saw a green turtle laying eggs on the beach.
After learning that sea turtle populations in Lebanon were under threat, she committed herself to protecting them and later returned permanently to the country.
Fast forward a year to 2000, and she helped establish the Orange House Project, an eco-tourism and conservation initiative overlooking Mansouri beach.
[...]
Her home had previously been damaged during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, but she refused to leave the beach she had spent years protecting.
"Mona barricaded herself inside her house, receiving no visitors and believing she was safe because she is a civilian," environmental activist and friend of Khalil, Maha Joumaa, told local media.
Joumaa said Khalil's decision to stay was consistent with her character.
"She absolutely refused to be displaced, which was fitting for someone so determined," she said.
Lebanese Conservationist Mona Khalil, 76, Killed by Israel
The terrorist Israhell, again ... RIP dear 🕯🪷✨️
* Oui, j'avoue et confesse (!!!), préférer toutes sortes d'animaux aux assassins et autres destructeurs, pilleurs, exploiteurs, que peut porter cette planète. Être juif, ne dispense en rien de respecter la vie ici-bas et les autres.
* Réaction et réponses suscitées par un commentaire consultable ci-dessous.
