The shooter who targeted a Michigan synagogue on Thursday has been identified by The Department of Homeland Security as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, an American citizen who was born in Lebanon. Reports claim the suspect’s family were killed by an Israeli airstrike last week.
The shooter was killed at the scene as FBI agents and police responded to reports of an active shooter at the Temple Israel Synagogue in the US state of Michigan.
Sky News has since verified that several members of Ghazali’s family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week, a local Lebanese official told Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
Ghazali was originally from Mashghara, a town in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. Israeli airstrikes on the town killed two of his adult brothers as well as his niece and nephew, the official said.
The two brothers were known to be members of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed armed group, the official said. But it was not clear what role they played in the organisation or if they were the target of the strike.
The shooter had rammed the synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, breached the facility and drove down the hall, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters.
Bouchard said security personnel at the synagogue engaged the suspect in gunfire upon his arrival. “Nobody at the moment has been confirmed to be hurt, except potentially the shooter,” he said on Thursday.
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“We believe there was one individual deceased in the vehicle,” he said, noting that fire had complicated access to the car. “We can’t say what killed him at this point,” said Bouchard. “You never know, sometimes they kill themselves.”
The sheriff said a security guard was struck by the vehicle and taken to the hospital, but was expected to recover. No other injuries were reported.
“No kids, no staff was injured whatsoever,” Bouchard said, adding that all individuals believed to have been inside the building at the time had been accounted for.
Bouchard said bomb squad units and dogs were on site checking the vehicle for improvised explosive devices, and the shelter-in-place order remains in effect pending the checks. “We believe there’s nothing active at the moment,” he said.
Something ignited inside the vehicle may have caused a fire in the building, though the cause remained under investigation, added Bouchard.
Michigan State Police said the incident was reported at around 12.30 pm local time (1630GMT) at the synagogue on Walnut Lake Road, with emergency personnel clearing the building.
Bouchard said authorities were still working to determine whether a second person was involved, asking residents to shelter in place within at least 1 mile of the scene “until we figure out exactly what’s going on.”
The sheriff said he had been receiving and sharing national-level intelligence for nearly two weeks, citing concerns about potential attacks following the start of US-Israeli strikes on Iran. “There was no lack of preparation,” he said.
All Jewish facilities in the area would receive significantly increased police presence, he added.
Michigan Govenor Gretchen Whitmer called the incident “heartbreaking,” saying the Jewish community “should be able to live and practice their faith in peace.”
US Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Haley Stevens expressed solidarity with the Jewish community. “No one should face violence anywhere, especially in a place of worship,” said Tlaib.
War spilling over?
Israel has been engaged in almost non-stop acts of aggression against its neighbours in the Middle East for several years, following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas in 2023.
Israel has attacked Lebanon and killed a wide number of civilians amid its ongoing conflict with Hezbollah, a pro-Iran armed group active in the country.
Also, the US and Israel are currently fighting a bloody war with Iran, which began with strikes on Tehran last week, one of which assassinated Iran’s Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei was not only the top political figure in Iran but also a highly revered religious authority for millions of Shia Muslims across the globe. Israeli and US bombings in Lebanon and Iran have been widely condemned for the alarmingly high level of civilian deaths.
The exact motive for the Michigan synagogue attack has yet to been officially verified, however, experts have warned that the widely condemned Israel-led wars in the region may spark a wave of lone wolf attacks in the West.
In October 2025, a pro-Israel synagogue in Manchester was attacked during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, when a British-Syrian man drove a black Kia Picanto into pedestrians before stabbing worshippers at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation.
Three people were killed in the incident, including the attacker and a worshipper who were both shot dead by police. Three other people were injured and treated in hospital; one was hit by the car, one had a stab wound and the third was wounded by police gunfire. The incident was declared a terrorist attack later that day.
On 14 December 2025, an Islamic State-inspired attack occurred at the Archer Park area of Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, during a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah attended by around 1,000 people.
Beginning at 6.42 pm, two gunmen, allegedly Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, killed a total of 15 people including 11 men, 3 women and a 10-year-old girl.
Sajid, an Indian national and permanent resident of Australia, was shot dead by police; his Australian son was treated for wounds at a local hospital and survived. IS later claimed credit for the attack.
In response to recent the assassination of Khamenei, senior religious figures in Iran have issued fatwas calling for “jihad” against US forces in the region and “revenge” for the killing of the Ayatollah.
A similar fatwa issued by Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, led to a novelist Salman Rushdie being attacked in New York in 2022. The attacker was a Lebanon born US citizen Hadi Matar. Rushdie inspired Khomeini’s fatwa after publishing a blasphemous book, The Satanic Verses, in 1988. The book insulted Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, and the Quran.
