Israel’s military has said that the brother of the man who attacked a Michigan synagogue last week was a Hezbollah commander. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed on social media that Ibrahim Mohamad Ghazali was ‘eliminated in an [Israeli air force] strike on a Hezbollah military structure last week’.
Ibrahim Ghazali was the brother of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who died by suicide during an attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, on Thursday. The IDF said Ibrahim was a commander within a specialised branch of the Badr unit, responsible for managing weapons used to launch ‘hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians’.
Separately, a Hezbollah official reportedly confirmed to the New York Times that Ayman Ghazali’s attack was revenge for the loss of four family members in an Israeli strike in Lebanon on 5 March. That official neither confirmed nor denied Ibrahim Ghazali’s affiliation with Hezbollah. According to Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Institute of America, Ayman Ghazali attended a memorial for his slain relatives in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, on 8 March.
Ayman Ghazali, a naturalised US citizen born in Lebanon, drove his truck into the synagogue and opened fire. An armed security guard returned fire, and the attacker’s vehicle caught fire, igniting jugs of petrol and fireworks. A security guard was injured, but none of the 103 children or nearly 50 staff inside were harmed. The FBI confirmed he died by suicide.
The attack has heightened concerns about revenge actions in the US linked to Middle East turmoil. US Senator Elissa Slotkin credited heightened security with preventing greater tragedy. Democratic Representative Adam Smith said the conflict in the Middle East has ‘exacerbated’ the potential for lone wolf attacks on US soil.
