Israel says brother of Michigan synagogue attacker was Hezbollah commander
Israel says brother of Michigan synagogue attacker was Hezbollah commander
Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAYSun, March 15, 2026 at 7:48 PM UTC
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The Israeli military said the brother of the man who attacked a Michigan synagogue last week was a Hezbollah commander and was recently killed in an airstrike.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Sunday that Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali was the brother of synagogue assailant Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, and said he was killed by Israeli Air Force strikes in Lebanon.
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The Trump administration and U.S. law enforcement authorities have not released information about Ayman Mohamad Ghazali’s brother. The FBI did not immediately reply to USA TODAY's request for comment.
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Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026.
One of Ghazali's neighbors told The Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the assailant's brother was killed in an airstrike. Mo Baydoun, the mayor of Dearborn Heights, where the suspect lived, said he "lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon" earlier in March.
Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon shortly after the war against Iran began on Feb. 28, in response to strikes from the Iranian-backed militant group. Lebanon’s ministry of health said on March 14 that 826 people have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded in Israeli strikes since the conflict started. Reuters reported twelve people in Israel have been killed from Iranian strikes, citing Israel's ambulance service.
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Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, was born in Lebanon. He rammed his truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township in Michigan and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as his truck caught fire while exchanging gunfire with two security guards, FBI officials said.
Israeli soldiers use artillery on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 15, 2026.
A security guard was wounded in the attack. All of the students and staff at the temple preschool were safely evacuated.
Authorities have increased security around places of worship nationwide in recent weeks amid the widening U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Contributing: Andrea May Sahouri and Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel says Michigan synagogue attacker's brother killed in strikes on Hezbollah
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