Mona Khalil (1949 – 2026)

Their Story

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, to a Lebanese family in 1949, Mona Khalil returned to southern Lebanon to dedicate herself to one of the region's most urgent environmental causes. A fleeting encounter with a turtle which had emerged from the ocean to lay its eggs on al-Mansouri beach near Tyre in 1999 propelled her on a lifelong journey devoted to animals. She left her career as an art restorer in the Netherlands and settled in the family house located about a hundred meters from the shore, built by her father and where she spent her childhood summers. In 2000, she and her partner Habiba Fayyad established the Orange House, a pioneering eco-tourism and environmental project overlooking Mansouri beach. The site evolved into far more than a guesthouse, becoming a sanctuary for wildlife, a centre for environmental education and research, and a gathering place for volunteers, activists and visitors from around the world. For more than a quarter of a century, Khalil dedicated her life to protecting the endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles that nest along Lebanon's southern coast. Her methods and knowledge spread across a generation of Lebanese environmentalists. "We are all children of Mona," fellow activists have said of themselves and other conservationists who inherited the work. On Thursday morning, June 5, 2026, Israeli strikes targeted the southern Lebanese village of Mansouri, hitting directly the beachfront home of Mona Khalil, one of Lebanon's most celebrated environmental conservationists. She had been hospitalized for two weeks at AUBMC in Beirut, after being transferred from Jabal Amel Hospital in the south. Though her life was cut short by conflict, her legacy endures as a beacon of environmental stewardship and unwavering commitment to protecting the natural world.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Khalil