News

The voice of Mona Khalil, guardian of southern Lebanon's sea turtles, has been silenced by bombs.

For more than twenty years, Mona dedicated her life to protecting sea turtles on the beaches of Mansouri, in southern Lebanon. She transformed the Orange House into a unique place in the Mediterranean: a centre for conservation, environmental education, hospitality and hope.

Anyone who has worked to protect the Mediterranean Sea knew Mona.

They knew her energy, her determination, and her remarkable ability to bring people together around a shared purpose: protecting nature and building a better future for coastal communities.

On 4 June, an Israeli airstrike hit the Orange House. Mona was critically injured. After days of fighting for her life, she passed away on 20 June.

She was 76 years old.

She was not a combatant.

She was not a political leader.

She posed no threat to anyone.

She protected sea turtles.

Her home was known throughout the Mediterranean as a symbol of biodiversity conservation, dialogue and civic commitment. Yet even that was not enough to protect her.

For those of us who had the privilege of working alongside her, Mona's death is far more than the loss of an extraordinary environmentalist. It is the loss of a part of the Mediterranean that still believes in cooperation, peaceful coexistence, and in people's ability to build bridges rather than walls.

Today we mourn a friend, a colleague, and one of the Mediterranean's most respected guardians of sea turtles.

But today we also feel outrage.

Because no war can justify the death of a woman who devoted her entire life to protecting nature and supporting local communities.

To Mona's family, her friends, the volunteers of the Orange House, our colleagues at the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve, and the entire Lebanese conservation community—with whom MEDSEA has worked since its very beginning—we extend our deepest condolences and our heartfelt embrace.

The Mediterranean has lost one of its most inspiring voices.

We will never forget her.