JERUSALEM — The Israeli military confirmed Sunday that Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, the brother of the man who attacked a Michigan synagogue last week, was killed in an airstrike targeting Hezbollah. The IDF said Ibrahim Ghazali, who oversaw weapons operations in Hezbollah’s Badr unit, died March 5 when Israeli forces struck a military building used to store arms.
The synagogue attack in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit was carried out by Ayman Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon. Authorities said he drove a vehicle laden with explosives into Temple Israel before exchanging fire with security officers and ultimately dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A security guard was injured, and dozens of first responders were treated for smoke inhalation, though the more than 100 children in the building were unharmed. The FBI called it a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
U.S. officials told CNN that Ayman Ghazali had been previously flagged for suspected connections to Hezbollah members, although he was not considered an active member. Local officials in Mashghara, Lebanon, confirmed that several members of the Ghazali family, including Ibrahim’s children and another brother, Kassim, were also killed in the strike.
The synagogue attack comes amid a string of violent incidents linked to extremist groups in the United States. Last weekend, two suspects were arrested for tossing makeshift bombs at a protest outside the New York City mayor’s residence in what authorities described as an ISIS-inspired attack. Weeks earlier in Austin, Texas, a shooter killed three people and injured more than a dozen, with investigators exploring potential links to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
On the same day as the Michigan attack, a shooting at Old Dominion University in Virginia left one dead and two injured. The suspect, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, a former member of the Virginia National Guard, had previously been convicted of attempting to aid ISIS.
In response to these events, national and state leaders, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul, have increased security measures and urged heightened vigilance amid concerns over domestic extremist activity and international tensions.
Authorities continue to investigate, and the story remains developing.#newsafro_
