Lebanese environmentalist Mona Khalil dies after Israeli strike injuries, leaving a legacy of sea turtle conservation in south Lebanon
BEIRUT: Activists and campaign groups on Saturday paid tribute to Lebanese environmentalist Mona Khalil who died from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike in the country’s south, where she dedicated her life to turtle conservation for decades.
A medical source had previously told AFP that Khalil, aged in her late seventies, was badly wounded in an Israeli strike on June 4 that hit her home in the village of Mansouri, around 10 kilometres (six miles) south of the coastal city of Tyre. She died on Friday.
Julien Jreissati, program director at Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa, said Khalil had “dedicated decades of her life to protecting the sea turtles and coastline of Mansouri”.
“Her loss is not only a loss for her family and community, but for the environmental movement in Lebanon and the region,” he told AFP.
A wide stretch of south Lebanon’s coastline near Tyre, which includes some of the country’s best-preserved beaches, is a nesting site for turtles, including endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles.
After returning to her native Lebanon from the Netherlands more than two decades ago, Khalil set up the Orange House Project in Mansouri, a conservation project combined with ecotourism, where visitors could see turtle hatchings and take part in conservation activities.
“For decades, Mona stood at the forefront of conservation efforts along the southern coast,” said the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL), mourning “one of Lebanon’s most dedicated environmental defenders and a tireless champion of sea turtle conservation”.
Her efforts contributed “significantly to the protection of one of Lebanon’s most important sea turtle nesting sites in Hima Qoleileh-Mansouri, a seven-kilometre stretch of sandy and rocky shoreline that hosts more than 58 endangered sea turtle nests annually”, it said.
Khalil inspired communities and “helped build a culture of environmental stewardship rooted in local ownership and collective responsibility”, it added in a statement on Friday.
Local environmental group Green Southerners on X mourned “a pioneering environmental defender” who for decades “dedicated her life to protecting endangered sea turtles and their nesting habitats”.
“Through the Orange House, she inspired generations of Lebanese to value and protect their natural heritage and coastal ecosystems,” it added.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) had been reporting heavy strikes in the Tyre district, including raids on Mansouri, earlier this month when Khalil was wounded.
The village is also located near an area where Israeli troops are operating inside south Lebanon.
Khalil was among the few local residents still holding out there despite the Israel-Hezbollah war and sweeping Israeli military evacuation orders for the country’s south.
