Israel’s military says the man behind a recent attack on a synagogue in Michigan was the brother of a Hezbollah commander killed earlier this month in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, Ibrahim Ghazali, alleged to be a commander in the militant group Hezbollah, was killed in a March 5 strike along with several relatives. The airstrike occurred roughly a week before authorities say his brother, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, carried out a violent attack at a major synagogue outside Detroit.
Investigators say the suspect drove his vehicle into Temple Israel and exchanged gunfire with security personnel before taking his own life. No worshippers or children inside the synagogue were injured.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation into the attack. Officials in the FBI’s Detroit field office declined to comment on Israel’s claim that the attacker’s brother was a Hezbollah commander.
“Out of respect for the ongoing investigation, we will continue to refrain from commenting on its substance,” said FBI spokesman Jordan Hall.
Israeli officials allege Ibrahim Ghazali managed weapons for a Hezbollah unit responsible for firing rockets into Israel. A Lebanese official confirmed to reporters that Ibrahim Ghazali was killed in the strike, along with his children Ali and Fatima and his brother Kassim when their home was hit shortly after sunset.
In a statement released in Beirut, Hezbollah said the two brothers were a local soccer referee and a scout member who were targeted in their home alongside their children, though the group did not directly deny that Ibrahim Ghazali had links to the organization.
Authorities believe Ayman Ghazali carried out the attack after learning that four of his family members had been killed in the Israeli airstrike.
The attack unfolded on Thursday when Ghazali reportedly waited in his car outside the synagogue for nearly two hours. Investigators say he was armed with a rifle, commercial-grade fireworks and containers believed to contain gasoline before ramming the building.
After crashing into the synagogue, he fired his weapon through the windshield and exchanged gunfire with an armed security guard. The suspect died after becoming trapped inside his burning vehicle.
Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, said no one inside the building was harmed, likely due to increased security measures implemented in recent months.
Federal authorities described the incident as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community, though investigators say they do not yet have enough evidence to formally classify it as terrorism.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Ghazali entered the United States in 2011 on an immediate relative visa through marriage to a U.S. citizen and became a naturalized American citizen in 2016.
He lived in the suburb of Dearborn Heights, about 40 miles south of the synagogue.
The synagogue attack occurred the same day another violent incident unfolded in Virginia, where a former Army National Guard member who had previously served prison time for attempting to assist the Islamic State opened fire inside a classroom at Old Dominion University, leaving one person dead and two others wounded.
