A man who crashed his pickup truck into a Detroit-area synagogue earlier this month carried out a Hezbollah-inspired attack, aiming to inflict maximum damage, the FBI announced Monday.
Ayman Ghazali, 41, made a video before the March 12 attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, stating he wanted to “kill as many of them as I possibly can,” FBI Detroit head Jennifer Runyan said.
Ghazali spent hours in the parking lot before smashing his F150 through the synagogue’s doors into an early childhood education area, striking a security guard.
He then exchanged gunfire with another guard before fatally shooting himself. No other injuries were reported among the 150 children and staff present.
Runyan described the incident as a “Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.”
Videos and images on Ghazali’s social media revealed his embrace of vengeance and Hezbollah’s militant ideology. He had searched for Michigan synagogues and Jewish cultural sites days before the attack, even looking up the time for lunch at Temple Israel.
It was unknown if Ghazali knew children would be present, Runyan added.
Ghazali’s Ford F150 contained commercial-grade fireworks and over 30 gallons of gasoline. A fire ignited in the truck’s engine, but no explosion occurred.
Detroit-area U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon drew parallels to Hezbollah’s 1983 truck bomb attack on U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, stating, “That is exactly what this terrorist did a few weeks ago in our backyard.”
Ghazali’s ex-wife had alerted police, concerned he was distraught and suicidal after losing family members during an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon days earlier. The strike occurred days into the Iran war with Israel and the U.S. that began on February 28.
Israel’s military confirmed Ghazali’s brother, Ibrahim Ghazali, killed in the airstrike, was a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon. National intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate committee Ayman Ghazali had family ties “to a Hezbollah leader.”
Founded in 1982 during Lebanon’s civil war, Hezbollah aimed to end Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.
Though Israel withdrew by 2000, Hezbollah continues its fight, seeking Israel’s destruction. The U.S. designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group in 1997, though it also functions as a political party with representation in the Lebanese parliament.
Temple Israel, the targeted synagogue, is part of Reform Judaism, North America’s largest branch, emphasizing progressive values such as social justice and gender equality.
It is the denomination’s second-largest congregation, founded in Detroit in 1941 before relocating to suburban West Bloomfield in the 1980s, now boasting over 12,000 members. This attack marks the latest in a series targeting religious buildings, intensifying fear among faith leaders and worshippers globally.
