BEIRUT — Lebanese conservationist Mona Khalil was first introduced to a green sea turtle as she was drinking a beer on the beach and a female turtle laying eggs threw sand over her, according to a volunteer with the decades-long effort she began to save the endangered animals.Khalil, 76, died Friday after an Israeli airstrike hit her beachside home two weeks ago.She's credited with creating a conservation movement in southern Lebanon that protected sea turtle nesting grounds and southern Lebanon's Mediterranean coast.Her housekeeper, who is Ethiopian, sustained less-severe injuries in the attack, Khalil's relatives said.
The two women were the only occupants of what was known as "the Orange House" just steps from the al-Mansouri beach near the city of Tyre.The Israeli military said last week in response to an NPR query that it had no indication it had hit the house but was reviewing its records.It did not respond to a query about when the review might be completed.Israel has invaded southern Lebanon and is attacking what it says are Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure.
The Lebanese health ministry says more than 4,000 people have been killed since the war began on March 2, including at least 600 women and children.Israel says 35 soldiers and a military contractor along with two civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks.Fadia Joumaa, a former volunteer who took over the turtle conservation effort, says Khalil had vowed to stay in her home during the fighting, believing she was safe because she was a civilian and there were no nearby targets.Khalil trained a generation of volunteers in ecological conservation, protecting the Mediterranean coastline and the endangered sea turtles that travel hundreds of miles to return to the same beaches where they were hatched to lay their eggs.Human encroachment, trash in the ocean and animal predators that eat the eggs and hatchlings mean newly hatched turtles have only about a 1 in 1,000 chance of survivin...