Overview
- FBI Detroit, which briefed reporters Monday, said the March 12 assault on Temple Israel was a Hezbollah‑inspired act targeting Michigan’s largest Jewish congregation.
- Agents said digital records showed months of pro‑Hezbollah and Iranian media consumption and, starting March 9, purchases of an AR‑style rifle, magazines, about 300 rounds, $2,200 in fireworks, torch lighters, and containers later filled with gasoline.
- Minutes before the attack, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali sent videos to his sister saying he had booby‑trapped his truck and planned to kill many, then rammed the building with a vehicle carrying more than 30 gallons of gasoline, exchanged fire with security, and died by suicide as children and staff were kept safe.
- Investigators reported no evidence of co‑conspirators and said Ghazali was not on a federal terror watch list and had not been the subject of a prior FBI investigation.
- U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said he would have charged material support to Hezbollah and argued Ghazali acted under the group’s direction, while the FBI’s probe continues against the backdrop of Hezbollah’s U.S. terror designation since 1997 and recent Israeli strikes that killed some of Ghazali’s relatives in Lebanon.