Mona Khalil, a sea turtle conservationist, was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon

When war came again to Lebanon, Mona Khalil refused to leave her beloved coastal home or the endangered sea turtles she was dedicated to protecting.

During the final conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024, the environmental activist reluctantly fled his home in the southern Lebanese village of Al-Mansouri, which doubles as a marine reserve, for refuge in Beirut.

His friends said he was angry every second he was kicked out of his home. So when the war resumed in March, Khalil remained steadfast.

He died on Friday from wounds sustained in an Israeli strike on his home earlier this month. He was 76 years old.

“He chose his own future,” said Assad Serhal, Khalil’s friend and conservationist. As It Happened hosted by Nil Köksal. “He wanted to die there, he died.”

‘One in a billion people’

On June 4, an Israeli strike hit Khalil’s home. His assistant, an Ethiopian woman, is recovering from burns, according to the Guardian. But Khalil died of his wounds in a Beirut hospital.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Khalil was “not a target” and “there was no known IDF strike in which he was injured.”

It added that the strikes were carried out in the area after issuing warnings for people to evacuate and “deeply regrets the damage caused to people.”

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, there are many more than 4,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since Israel’s war with Hezbollah began in March.

More violence has continued since a fragile ceasefire agreement was reached on Saturday.

Khalil, a Nigerian citizen of Lebanese and Dutch descent, has spent more than two decades protecting sea turtles off the coast of Al-Mansouri.

In 2000, he and his partner, Habiba Fayed, turned the land he inherited from his grandmother into a sanctuary for endangered turtles and green sea turtles. They also turned his home, Orange House, into an ecotourism bed and breakfast, and a training ground for volunteers documenting beach nesting.

Each nesting season, Khalil and volunteers patrol the beach at night, marking new tracks in the sand and removing nests that are endangered by human activity and light pollution on the beach.

During the summer nesting season, he arranged for visitors to watch the sea turtle hatch.

“I think he is one in a million,” said Serhal, founder of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon. “War is cruel.”

Big impact on conservationists

Serhal says that when he first met Khalil in 2006, he was wary of him and distrustful of organizations.

“He didn’t like me very much,” he said with a laugh.

His goal was to convince her to join him in transforming his beachside property a hima form of community-based conservation with roots in Islam.

“I told him that one day we will all go one way or another, who will protect these sea turtles that you protect so much?” he said. “I think it makes sense.”

He says he remembers staying up one night talking to Khalil until 4 in the morning, when he revealed that he fell in love with a sea turtle after his son died.

He says he told her that every turtle he sees reminds him of his child, and he wants to dedicate his life’s work to him. Serhal says he promised to help make it happen.

“I think that’s when we became friends,” he said.

That year, the Hima Qoleileh–Mansouri was created, legally protecting seven kilometers of the south coast of Lebanon.

The news of Khalil’s death caused grief to those who worked with him over the years, most of whom gathered in Beirut on Sunday to mourn him.

Among them was journalist and environmental activist Fadia Jomaa, who met Khalil in 2016 while doing sea turtle research in Lebanon and decided to volunteer with her Orange House Project.

“This relationship did not end up being a volunteer relationship,” said Jomaa. “Mona became our mother.”

Johnny Baaklini, another former Orange House volunteer, agreed.

“[She] she treated us, conservationists, like her own children,” he said. “It feels impossible to describe the impact Mona personally had on me and many other young scientists.”

Serhal says Khalil’s impact will be felt far and wide for generations to come. He says Hima Qoleileh–Mansouri is home to many migratory birds and marine life, including Khalil’s favorite turtles.

Thanks to Khalil, he says, “we know the turtles will always have a place to come home to.”