The FBI believes this month’s attack on a metro-Detroit synagogue was a terrorist attack inspired by the Lebanese political party and militant group Hezbollah.
On March 12th, a man armed with fireworks, gasoline, and weapons, rammed his truck into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. Ayman Ghazali exchanged gunfire with a security guard before fatally shooting himself.
Federal officials said Ghazali had been watching and sharing significant amounts of pro-Hezbollah content online leading up to the incident. They say he ramped up planning for the attack, buying an AR-15-style rifle, and searching where to find large gatherings of Israelis, after Israel Defense Forces killed his brothers.
U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said it does not matter whether the attack was directed or inspired.
“There’s no legal difference whether a Hezbollah commander called this man and said go do this attack or whether this man consumed Hezbollah propaganda and heeded the call within the propaganda to go do an attack,” Gorgon said during a press conference Monday.
The FBI said it couldn’t “verify” that Ghazali was an actual member of Hezbollah. Investigators also said they didn’t have any evidence to suggest he was working with anyone on the attack.
Despite that, the investigation remains open.
Jennifer Runyan is special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI Field Office. During the press conference, Runyan walked through the steps she alleged Ghazali took before the attack.
That included trying and failing to buy a gun from two different individuals before going to a gun store to buy it himself. Runyan declined to elaborate on the agency’s conversations with those people and whether they raised any flags.
She didn’t specify who or what else the agency looking into.
On social media, Congresswoman Haley Stevens (D, MI-11) , who represents West Bloomfield, thanked the FBI for its investigation. She encouraged a quick resolution and said it showed the need to protect Jewish communities against antisemitism.
“It is critical that this investigation be conducted with the urgency, transparency, and seriousness it deserves, and that it is done in coordination with Oakland County law enforcement,” Stevens said.
The timeline suggested anger with Israel may have contributed to the attack on the synagogue, among the largest in Michigan and the country.
Runyan noted Israeli Defense Forces killed some of Ghazali’s family members a week before hand. Israel claimed his brother was a Hezbollah commander.
Though Runyan emphasized the attack started ramping up after that happened, she said Ghazali’s radicalization was already under way.
There’s no action that justifies or contextualizes this attack to make it, ‘Well it’s because of his family or not.’ It’s a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism. When it happened and then the timeline of events, it still is based on this ideology, an intent to kill as many people as possible,” Runyan said.
Runyan said there’s no current credible threats Hezbollah has against Michigan at the moment.
