The suspect in the March 12 vehicle-ramming attack at Temple Israel in Michigan has been identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon. Members of Ghazali’s family had reportedly been killed days earlier by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.
As Zeale News previously reported, Ghazali allegedly drove a truck into the synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, shortly before 1 p.m. He then exited the vehicle with a rifle and exchanged gunfire with security personnel, who shot and killed him. Officials said none of the synagogue’s staff or the children at its early childhood center were injured, but several law enforcement officers were hospitalized due to smoke inhalation after the attacker’s car caught fire.
Authorities have not publicly identified a motive in the attack. The FBI is investigating the incident as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, said during a March 12 press conference.
Ghazali’s background
According to a DHS statement cited by The Hill, Ghazali was born in Lebanon in January 1985 and entered the U.S. through Detroit in 2011 on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. He applied for naturalization in October 2015, became a citizen in February 2016, and has lived in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said in a Facebook statement that earlier this month, Ghazali “lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.” A Lebanese official told NBC News that Ghazali also lost two of his adult brothers in the strike.
Drop Site News reporter Ryan Grim said on X that the night before the attack, Ghazali had posted photos on social media of his relatives who were killed.
NEWS: The man who rammed his explosives-laden truck into a Michigan synagogue today was named Ayman Ghazaleh, according to a source familiar with the situation. Ghazaleh posted photos overnight of his family members, including young children, who were killed in a recent Israeli… pic.twitter.com/KEBeJPAZsD
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 12, 2026
As Zeale News previously reported, Lebanese communities have been entangled in the ongoing Iran war, as Israel has carried out many strikes in southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and the Bekaa Valley, citing the alleged presence of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in the locations of the attacks. According to the United Nations, more than 750,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, and more than 570 people across the country have been killed by Israeli strikes.
The violence has affected Lebanon’s Christian communities, many of whom have vowed to stay in their villages despite the conflict. On March 9, Father Pierre al-Rahi, a Maronite Catholic priest, died after sustaining wounds from an Israeli tank strike in the Christian-majority village of Qlayaa.