Three days after 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali drove a car into a synagogue in Michigan and opened fire at security guards, Israel’s military has claimed that the brother of the accused was a Hezbollah commander.
Ghazali, originally from Lebanon, waited in his car outside a synagogue in Detroit suburb for two hours before ramming into the building where dozens of children were inside. He was shot and killed by security personnel at the site.
The Israeli military said Ghazali’s brother Ibrahim Ghazali was a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon who managed weapons for a unit that fired rockets at Israel, Associated Press reported.
The report said that Ibrahim was killed in Lebanon along with three other relatives on March 5 — a week before Ayman allegedly drove his car into the synagogue.
A Lebanese official confirmed Ibrahim Ghazali’s death to AP, adding that Ibrahim’s children, Ali and Fatima, and brother, Kassim, were also killed in the strike. The four were killed at their home just after sunset as they were having their meal to break fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan, CNN reported.
IDF Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee, however, said Ibrahim was killed on March 5 when the Israeli military struck a Hezbollah military building used to store weapons.
As per authorities, Ayman Ghazali might have carried out the synagogue attack after learning of the killing of his family members in the Israeli strike.
What happened during Michigan synagogue attack?
On Thursday afternoon, Ayman Ghazali waited in his car for two hours outside a synagogue in West Bloomfield before ramming into the building. At the time of the incident, around 140 children and staff members were inside the synagogue’s early childhood centre.
Ayman started open fire through the windshield, exchanging fire with an armed security guard. He was later killed by security officials.
Officials later said they found large quantities of commercial grade fireworks and several jugs of a liquid believed to be gasoline.
