Israel's military says the brother of the man who rammed a vehicle into a Michigan synagogue last week was a Hezbollah commander killed in an airstrike in Lebanon days before the attack.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) identified the brother as Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali and said he served as a commander responsible for weapons operations in a Hezbollah unit that launched rockets toward Israel.
According to the IDF, he was killed on Mar. 5 in an airstrike on a Hezbollah facility in Lebanon. The claim has not been independently verified by U.S. authorities, and the FBI has declined to comment on Israel's assertion.
U.S. officials have identified the Michigan attacker as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad (or Muhammad) Ghazali, a naturalized American citizen originally from Lebanon, according to CNN.
Authorities say that on Mar. 12, he drove a vehicle, reportedly carrying explosives or flammable materials, into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, outside Detroit, and exchanged gunfire with security personnel.
He died at the scene, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being fired upon and trapped in the burning vehicle, according to law enforcement briefings.
The FBI is investigating the episode as a "targeted act of violence against the Jewish community," though officials say a final motive has not been determined, the Times of India reported.
A security guard was injured, and dozens of officers and first responders were treated for smoke inhalation, but more than 100 children and staff in the building were evacuated without physical harm. Local and state leaders have condemned the attack and praised the synagogue's security measures for preventing greater casualties.
Lebanese officials and media reports say several members of Ghazali's family, including at least one brother, were killed in the Mar. 5 Israeli strike, and that he had recently posted images of his dead relatives online.
Some reports suggest he learned of the deaths shortly before the synagogue attack, but investigators have not publicly linked the airstrike to his actions in Michigan. The case is unfolding amid intensifying Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon as regional tensions continue to rise, as per the Associated Press.
