The antisemitic maniac who plowed his explosive-laden car into a Michigan synagogue’s preschool Thursday carried out the targeted attack after his family was killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, according to a report.
Ayman Ghazali — a 41-year-old naturalized US citizen from Lebanon — had at least four relatives, including a sibling, killed days earlier in military strikes in Machghara amid escalating tensions in the Middle East over the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, sources close to the investigation told The Detroit News.
The Israel Defense Forces launched a deadly wave of attacks on Hezbollah leaders in Beirut on Saturday, killing at least 217 Lebanese civilians and injuring nearly 800 more.
Ghazali, who died in the brazen attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Thursday afternoon, lived in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, and worked at Hamido Restaurant, a local Middle Eastern eatery, the outlet reported.
The wannabe car bomber, who was born in Lebanon in January 1985, became a naturalized US citizen more than a decade ago under the Obama administration after entering the country through Detroit on May 10, 2011, on an immigrant visa as the spouse of an American citizen, the Department of Homeland Security told The Post.
He was granted citizenship on Feb. 5, 2016, federal officials said.
Ghazali shares at least one child with his ex-wife, who filed for divorce in Wayne County Circuit Court in August 2024, according to court records, the outlet reported.
The divorce was finalized seven months later.
The armed suspect was found dead inside the car, which was loaded with mortar shells, after the temple’s heroic security guards opened fire and stopped him when he rammed through the preschool’s entrance and barreled through the building housing 140 students, police and sources said.
The bomb-packed car sparked a blaze, and he was found inside burned beyond recognition, sources said.
No children or staff members were injured in the attack, but the temple’s head security guard was hit by the car and knocked unconscious in the chaos.
The guard, along with 30 other emergency responders who suffered smoke inhalation inside the building, were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
The suspect’s cause of death remains unclear.
While authorities said it’s too early to determine a motive, the FBI, which is leading the investigation, confirmed the incident is being treated as a targeted attack on the Jewish community.
Oakland County— where Temple Israel is located — has one of the largest Jewish populations outside of the New York area.
