DETROIT: The 41-year-old man who was killed after ramming his pickup truck into a synagogue on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, had recently lost family members in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security identified the assailant as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon, came to Detroit in 2011, and became a US citizen in 2016.

Security guards opened fire on Ghazali after he smashed a truck through the doors of the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield and drove down a hallway. The vehicle then caught fire, filling the building with smoke.

At a news conference Thursday evening, Bouchard said no synagogue staff or children were hurt in the attack, but 30 law enforcement officers were “taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation”.

Law enforcement has not yet publicly detailed a motive, but the FBI will investigate the incident “as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” special agent in charge Jennifer Runyan said on Thursday.

According to CBS News, Ghazali’s actions appear rooted in profound personal trauma. Just 10 days earlier, on March 5, an Israeli airstrike struck his family’s village of Mashgharah in eastern Lebanon during Ramadan, killing his brothers Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali, along with Ibrahim’s children, Ali and Fatima, as they broke their fast at home.

Kassim was a respected soccer coach and personal trainer in the community, while Ibrahim worked as a school bus driver. Ibrahim’s wife was seriously wounded and remained hospitalised.

About 140 people — 106 children and more than 30 staff — were at the synagogue at the time of the attack, said Cassi Cohen, Temple Israel’s director of strategic development. None of them were injured, according to Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2026