IDF Says Michigan Synagogue Attacker’s Brother Was Hezbollah Commander Killed In Israeli Strike

Last Updated:March 15, 2026, 22:03 IST

The IDF reported Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Ghazali, brother of Michigan synagogue attacker Ayman Ghazali, was killed in an Israeli strike.

The Israel Defense Forces said the brother of the man behind a recent attack on a synagogue in the US state of Michigan was a commander in Hezbollah who was killed in an Israeli strike earlier this month.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, the brother of synagogue assailant Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, oversaw weapons operations in Hezbollah’s Badr unit, which Israeli officials say has launched rockets at Israeli targets. According to the IDF, Ibrahim Ghazali was killed on March 5 when Israeli forces struck a Hezbollah military building used to store weapons.

The Israeli military said the strike was part of its wider operations against Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon amid the ongoing regional conflict.

The revelation comes days after 41-year-old Ghazali, a Lebanese-born naturalised US citizen, carried out a vehicle-ramming attack at Temple Israel, a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Ghazali drove a truck into the synagogue building and opened fire with a rifle before dying during the confrontation.

Authorities said the vehicle was loaded with fireworks and flammable materials, triggering a fire inside the building after the crash. Security personnel stationed at the synagogue exchanged gunfire with the attacker, preventing what officials said could have been a much more deadly assault. More than 100 children and staff members inside the synagogue’s early childhood centre were evacuated safely.

One security guard was injured after being struck by the vehicle, while dozens of responding officers were treated for smoke inhalation. Despite the scale of the attack, no children or staff members were seriously harmed.

Investigators said the attacker had emigrated to the United States in 2011 and became a naturalised US citizen in 2016. Authorities are examining whether the attack was connected to the deaths of several of his relatives in Lebanon, including brothers reportedly linked to Hezbollah who were killed in the Israeli strike days earlier.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the incident as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community, though officials have said a final determination on motive has not yet been made.

Local officials and community leaders condemned the attack, while authorities across several US cities increased security around synagogues and other places of worship following the incident.

News world IDF Says Michigan Synagogue Attacker’s Brother Was Hezbollah Commander Killed In Israeli Strike

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