Overview
- Reports say Khalil was critically wounded when her beachfront home, known as the Orange House, was struck in early June and she died in mid‑June after being treated in Beirut.
- Local groups and colleagues attribute the strike to Israeli forces while the Israel Defense Forces say they have no record of a strike that wounded her, leaving responsibility contested.
- Khalil spent more than 25 years turning the Orange House into a volunteer training hub and one of the eastern Mediterranean’s key nesting sites for endangered loggerhead and green turtles.
- An assistant was wounded helping after the strike and rescuers pulled Khalil from the rubble, and the attack has damaged the site and disrupted burials, volunteer patrols, and nest protection during nesting season.
- Colleagues mourn Khalil as a symbol of life and resistance, and conservationists warn that loss of leadership, ongoing insecurity, and damaged infrastructure put turtle survival and local stewardship at immediate risk.