Michigan synagogue attacker’s relatives killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, officials say

By Casey Tolan, Charbel Mallo, Jeff Winter, CNN

(CNN) — A week before Thursday’s attack on a Michigan synagogue, the suspect’s two brothers and two of their children were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, the mayor of the Lebanese village where they lived told CNN.

The Department of Homeland Security said that Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, drove a vehicle laden with explosives into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit. It then caught fire, in what the FBI called a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” The FBI said the agency is continuing to investigate the attack.

Ghazali was killed after security officers for the synagogue engaged him and “neutralized the threat,” West Bloomfield Police Chief Dale Young said Thursday. One security officer was hurt in the attack, and at least 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation, authorities said.

Iskandar Barakeh, the mayor of Mashghara, Lebanon, said in a phone interview that Ghazali’s brothers, Kassim and Ibrahim, were killed in an Israeli airstrike there on March 5, along with Ibrahim’s children, Ali and Fatima. The two men’s wives and Ghazali’s parents also sustained injuries, Barakeh said.

Three Israeli airstrikes have recently hit the village, which is about 30 miles southeast of Beirut, including an attack on a financial institution associated with the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah that damaged a nearby school, according to Barakeh. While some residents initially left the village, many have begun returning recently, he said.

Mo Baydoun, the mayor of Dearborn Heights, the Detroit suburb where Ghazali lived, also said in a statement that Ghazali had lost family members in Lebanon in an Israeli attack. “Everyone deserves to worship in peace, and we must unequivocally condemn any attack on a house of worship or the people within it,” Baydoun said.

Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon, came to the US in 2011 after receiving a visa as the spouse of a US citizen, the DHS said in a statement. He became a naturalized US citizen in 2016.

He worked at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Dearborn Heights, an employee at the restaurant said. A manager at the restaurant declined to comment further.

Ghazali’s wife filed for divorce in August 2024, and the divorce was finalized in March 2025, according to Wayne County court records.

CNN’s Rob Kuznia and Blake Ellis contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.