Conservationist and Her Sea Turtle Program Lost to Airstrike

Mona Khalil, who founded the Orange House Project around 2000 to protect loggerhead sea turtles on Lebanon's southern coast, died June 20 from injuries sustained in an airstrike on her home near Tyre two weeks earlier. The strike destroyed the region's only dedicated turtle conservation program, leaving the vital 2026 nesting season unmonitored and eliminating decades of field research and local partnerships.