The brother of the terrorist who drove a vehicle into a Jewish preschool in Michigan was a commander in Hezbollah, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed. Ayman Muhammad Ghazali, 41, was shot and killed after he drove a vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, on Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces said that his brother, Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, oversaw weapons operations within a specialized Hezbollah division known as the Badr Unit. According to the IDF, this unit of the Lebanese militant group was responsible for launching hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilian areas during the recent conflict with Iran. Several family members have now been killed in separate incidents.
Family of Terrorists
Ghazali's two brothers, along with a niece and a nephew, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 5 in the town of Mashgharah, Lebanon, just days before the attack, a local official said on Friday.
The strike took place as the family had gathered to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Ghazali was allowed to enter the United States in 2011 as the spouse of a US citizen, and he later became a US citizen in 2016 during the Obama administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
On Thursday, he drove about 38 miles from his home in the heavily Muslim Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights to Temple Israel, one of the largest Reform synagogues in the country, which also has a school and an early childcare center on its campus.
After crashing his car — which authorities said was filled with explosives and gasoline containers — he exchanged gunfire with an armed security guard. The rampage ended when he shot himself after getting trapped inside the burning vehicle.
Big Tragedy Avoided
None of the 140 children, teachers, and staff inside the synagogue were hurt during the attack, largely due to the quick response of Temple Israel's private security team. "If they had not all done their jobs almost perfectly, we would be talking about an immense tragedy here with children gone," US Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Dem., M-17) said during a news conference on Friday.
In Dearborn Heights, a local mosque held a service last weekend for Ghazali's relatives.
The mosque's leader, Imam Hassan Qazwini, said on Friday that he had only encountered Ghazali once and strongly condemned the attack on the synagogue.
"Islam forbids holding innocent people accountable for acts done by others," Qazwini said.
"The unjustified Israeli attack on civilians in Iran and Lebanon gives no blank check to anyone attacking synagogues, civilians and peaceful communities," he added.
