DETROIT — The FBI said Monday that a man who crashed a pickup truck into Temple Israel, a large synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, was inspired by Hezbollah and sought to inflict as much damage as he could on Jewish people.
FBI Director Jennifer Runyan said Ayman Ghazali made a video just minutes before the attack, telling investigators he wanted to kill as many people as possible in the congregation. Runyan described the assault as a “Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.”
The FBI said Ghazali, 41, spent time before the attack at the synagogue. Runyan said he sat in the parking lot for a few hours on March 12 before smashing his F150 through doors and into the hallway of an early childhood education area, where he struck a security guard. She said Ghazali then exchanged gunfire with another guard before fatally shooting himself, and that no one else among the 150 children and staff was injured.
Runyan said Ghazali sent two final videos to a sister overseas about 10 minutes before he launched the assault. She also cited additional material drawn from Ghazali’s social media, including videos and images in which he embraced vengeance and Hezbollah’s militant ideology. In one exchange, Runyan quoted Ghazali as saying in Arabic that he intended to “booby-trap the car,” force entry, and start shooting, adding “God willing, I will kill as many of them as I possibly can.”
Investigators also said Ghazali appeared to select his target with preparation. Runyan said she searched for Michigan synagogues and Jewish cultural sites a few days earlier before settling on Temple Israel, including looking up the time for lunch. She said there was no way to know whether Ghazali knew children would be present during the early childhood education time when he struck.
Runyan said Ghazali bought an AK-style rifle and 300 rounds of ammunition at a gun store on March 9 and practiced at a shooting range. She said the Ford F150 he drove to the synagogue was stocked with commercial-grade fireworks and containers with more than 30 gallons (113 liters) of gasoline, and that the truck caught fire after barreling into the synagogue, though investigators found no explosion.
Prosecutors and the FBI also linked the attack to Hezbollah’s history. U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon pointed to Hezbollah’s 1983 truck bomb against U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, saying it was “exactly what this terrorist did a few weeks ago in our backyard,” while speaking alongside Runyan.
The FBI said Ghazali’s family ties to Hezbollah were publicly disclosed soon after the attack. It said Ghazali lived in Dearborn Heights and came to the United States in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, and that the Department of Homeland Security granted him citizenship in 2016. It also cited Israel’s military saying a brother, Ibrahim Ghazali, was a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon who was killed there on March 5, and said a Detroit-area mosque held a memorial service for the brother and other family members who died.
The FBI also referenced information from a 911 audio recording in which Ghazali’s ex-wife told police in Dearborn Heights that he seemed distraught and suicidal after losing family during an Israeli airstrike, according to the report. Runyan and the FBI did not release all of Ghazali’s videos and materials but showed screengrabs and quotes from several recordings.
Hezbollah, the FBI said, was founded in 1982 during Lebanon’s civil war and initially focused on ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon. The group later continued its fight, Israel says, and the U.S. has designated it a terrorist group since 1997, while also noting that Hezbollah is a political party with lawmakers in Lebanon’s parliament and a presence across governments for decades.
Temple Israel, which has more than 12,000 members, is part of Reform Judaism, the largest branch of the religion in North America, the FBI said. The congregation described in the FBI’s account is the second-largest, according to the Union for Reform Judaism.
The FBI said the attack was the latest in a run of assaults targeting religious buildings, an area of concern it said has intensified fear among religious leaders and worshippers worldwide. As covered in March 15, 2026, MSI previously reported on steps taken to strengthen security in the wake of the threat environment around the attack period by local institutions.