Israel’s military claimed Sunday that the brother of the recent Michigan synagogue attacker was a Hezbollah commander responsible for administering weapons in a unit that launched “hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians.”
In a statement published in
Ibrahim Ghazali “was eliminated in an (Israeli air force) strike on a Hezbollah military structure last week,” the IDF post said. Ayman Ghazali was shot and killed when security officers 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 members of his family during an Israeli military attack in Lebanon on March 5. 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 service for members of his family murdered at the mosque in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, on March 8. Among those relatives, in addition to Ibrahim, were his two children and another brother.
Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, drove his Ford F-150 pickup truck Thursday toward Temple Israel on Walnut Lake in West Bloomfield, which had taken steps to strengthen security in response to previous attacks on houses of worship as well as anti-Semitic incidents.
An armed private security guard responded to 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 wounded in the exchange of gunfire and Ayman Ghazali eventually shot himself to death, the FBI’s Detroit field office said. None of the 103 children and nearly 50 teachers, clergy and staff members inside the building were injured.
The IDF has described the target of the March 5 attack in the eastern city of Mashgharah as a Hezbollah “military structure,” where it said weapons were stored and that agents of the militant group were “present.” Lebanese officials said the airstrike hit a three-story building and Ibrahim Ghazali’s wife was seriously injured.
Fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces has intensified since the United States and Israel began war in Iran on February 28, when Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a missile attack. Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on March 2, provoking Israeli airstrikes that Lebanon’s Health Ministry estimates have killed about 800 people.
The attack in Michigan has raised concerns about retaliatory actions within the United States stemming from turmoil in the Middle East. After Thursday’s attack, U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan took credit for beefing up security measures to prevent the deaths of temple members.
“If they hadn’t done their job almost perfectly, today we would be talking about an immense tragedy with missing children,” said Slotkin, a Democrat.
Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s Democratic governor, added: “These heroes jumped into danger and confronted a suspect.”
On Sunday, Democratic U.S. House member Adam Smith of Washington state told ABC’s This Week that the potential for politically motivated lone wolf attacks on U.S. soil had been “exacerbated” by the conflict in the Middle East.
“We would be wrong to say that’s what caused all of this,” Smith said, alluding to previous terrorist attacks in the United States. But “we have to be prepared for that.”
Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, added: “This war and this conflict is certainly spreading right now.”
