Israel’s military claimed on Sunday that the brother of the recent Michigan synagogue attacker was a Hezbollah commander responsible for managing weapons in a unit that has launched “hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians”.
In a statement posted on X, the IDF claimed that Ibrahim Mohamad Ghazali – brother of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali – was a Hezbollah commander within a specialized branch of the Badr unit.
Ibrahim Ghazali “was eliminated in an [Israeli air force] strike on a Hezbollah military structure last week”, the IDF’s post said. Ayman Ghazali shot himself to death when security at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, confronted him after his attack there on Thursday.
Separately, a Hezbollah official reportedly confirmed to the New York Times that Ayman Ghazali’s attack on Temple Israel, one of the largest in the country, was revenge for the loss of four family members during an Israeli military strike in Lebanon on 5 March. But that official neither confirmed nor denied the IDF’s claim that Ibrahim Ghazali was a Hezbollah fighter.
According to Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Institute of America, Ayman Ghazali attended a memorial for his slain family members at the mosque in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, on 8 March. Those family members – beside Ibrahim – included his two children as well as another brother.
Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized US citizen born in Lebanon, on Thursday then drove his Ford F-150 truck into Temple Israel on West Bloomfield’s Walnut Lake, which had taken steps to strengthen security in response to previous attacks at places of worship as well as antisemitic incidents.
An armed private security guard shot back at the Ayman Ghazali after the attacker opened fire through his windshield in a hallway inside the building. The car’s engine caught fire, igniting “several jugs” of gasoline and fireworks in its bed, according to authorities.
A security guard was injured in the gunfire exchange, and Ayman Ghazali ultimately shot himself to death, the FBI’s Detroit field office said. None of 103 children and nearly 50 teachers, clergy and staff members inside the building were injured.
The IDF has described the target of the 5 March strike in the eastern town of Mashgharah as a Hezbollah “military structure”, where it said weapons were stored and operatives of the militant group were “present”. Lebanese officials have said the airstrike hit a three-story building and that Ibrahim Ghazali’s wife was seriously wounded.
Fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces has escalated since the US and Israel began war in Iran on 28 February, when Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a missile strike. Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on 2 March, triggering Israeli airstrikes that Lebanon’s health ministry estimates have killed about 800 people.
The attack in Michigan has heightened concerns about revenge actions within the US stemming from the turmoil in the Middle East. After Thursday’s attack, US senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan credited heightened security measures for preventing the deaths of temple members.
“If they had not done their job almost perfectly we would be talking about an immense tragedy here today with children gone,” Slotkin, a Democrat, said.
Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic Michigan governor, added: “These heroes threw themselves in harm’s way, engaging a suspect.”
On Sunday, Democratic US House member Adam Smith of Washington state told ABC’s This Week that the potential for politically motivated lone wolf attacks on United States soil had been “exacerbated” by the conflict in the Middle East.
“We’d be wrong to say it sparked it,” Smith said, alluding to prior terrorist attacks in the US. But “we need to be prepared for those.”
Smith, the top Democrat on the House armed services committee, added: “This war and this conflict is without question spreading right now.”
