Man who attacked Michigan synagogue lost relatives in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, official says. [View all]

Source: Associated Press

U.S. News
Man who attacked Michigan synagogue lost relatives in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, official says.

By COREY WILLIAMS and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Updated 11:59 AM EDT, March 13, 2026

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials say was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.

Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, was killed by security after ramming into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit and driving down a hallway in a vehicle that then caught fire, according to authorities.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community.

About 140 people — 106 children and more than 30 staff — were at the synagogue at the time of the attack, said Cassi Cohen, Temple Israel’s director of strategic development. None of them were injured, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/michigan-synagogue-attack-fbi-investigation-58331bad2c28e78c6c99a4a764637873