Israel’s military said Sunday that the brother of the man accused of attacking a Michigan synagogue earlier this week was a Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
In a statement posted online, the Israel Defense Forces said Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali managed weapons operations for Hezbollah’s Badr unit, which it said had launched “hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians” during the war. The IDF said he was “eliminated in an airstrike last week” when Israeli forces struck a Hezbollah facility believed to be storing weapons. Lebanese officials confirmed that Ibrahim Ghazali was killed in the March 5 strike in the town of Mashghara. Several family members were also killed, including his children, Ali and Fatima, and another brother, Kassim, while his wife was seriously wounded.
However, a Hezbollah official speaking anonymously to The New York Times disputed Israel’s claim, saying neither Ibrahim Ghazali nor his family were members of the group.
Meanwhile, U.S. authorities have not confirmed the Israeli military’s claims. The FBI’s Detroit office declined to comment, saying, “Out of respect for the ongoing investigation, we will continue to refrain from commenting on its substance.”
The synagogue attacker, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, allegedly carried out the assault Thursday at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, near Detroit. Investigators say he had recently learned that several relatives were killed in the Israeli strike in Lebanon. Authorities say Ghazali waited outside the synagogue for about two hours in a Ford F-150 before crashing the truck into the building. Inside the vehicle, investigators found a rifle, commercial-grade fireworks and containers believed to contain gasoline.
After the crash, Ghazali fired through his windshield and exchanged gunfire with an armed security guard. The truck’s engine caught fire, igniting the fuel and fireworks. Ghazali later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the vehicle became disabled.
No one else was killed in the attack. A security guard was injured, and dozens of responding officers were treated for smoke inhalation. More than 100 children and staff members inside the building were unharmed. The FBI described the incident as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
Federal officials say Ghazali entered the U.S. legally in 2011 through a spouse sponsorship and became a citizen in 2016. Law-enforcement officials said his name had previously appeared in government databases due to contacts with individuals suspected of ties to Hezbollah, though investigators do not believe he was a member.
On the same day as the Michigan attack, a separate shooting at Old Dominion University in Virginia left one person dead and two injured. Authorities said the suspect, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guard member, had previously served prison time for attempting to aid ISIS.
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