An attacker who rammed his vehicle into Michigan’s Temple Israel Synagogue on yesterday has been identified as a Lebanese immigrant.
Ayman Ghazali, 41, had been living in the US since 2016, originally entering the country on an immigration visa, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed.
Ghazali rammed his truck through the doors of the building in the township of West Bloomfield, in Oakland, and drove down the corridor “with purpose” before exchanging gunfire with at least one security guard, in what the authorities called a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”
The shul’s security guards “neutralised” Ghazali, Chief Dale Young of the West Bloomfield Township Police Department said.
There were no injuries to staff or children at the attached pre-school, which was evacuated, Oakland County officer Michael Bouchard said. One security guard was hit by the vehicle and taken to the hospital, and is expected to recover.
Several members of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon last week, a local Lebanese official told Sky's US partner network NBC News.
A local official told the news agency AP that Ghazali was originally from Mashghara, a town in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, and that Israeli airstrikes on the town killed two of his adult brothers as well as his niece and nephew.
The two brothers were known to be members of Iran’s proxy terror group, Hezbollah, the official said.
Ghazali reportedly arrived in the US in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a US citizen and was granted US citizenship five years later, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Temple Israel serves about 12,000 members, making it one of the largest Reform synagogues in the US. It comprises an early childhood centre and a school that runs from pre-school to 12th grade (Year 12).
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he had spoken with community leaders in Michigan in the wake of the attack to express the country’s “solidarity with the local Jewish community”.
“I am relieved to hear that there were no casualties as a result of the attack,” he said yesterday evening.
“This is a grave and serious incident that follows a series of attacks on Jewish institutions around the world. Tonight, we send a message of strength and support from Israel to the Jewish community in Michigan."
Commenting on the attack, President Donald Trump said: “We want to send our love to the Michigan Jewish community and all the people in the Detroit area following the attack on the Jewish synagogue.”
Referring to the incident a "terrible thing" he said: “We're going to get right down to the bottom of it", adding: "It's absolutely incredible that things like this happen.”
The Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, denounced the attack in a statement, saying: “This is heartbreaking. Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace. Antisemitism and violence have no place in Michigan. I am hoping for everyone’s safety.”
The attack has left the local Jewish community shaken, but the Jewish Federation of Detroit also extended its “most sincere thanks” to the police and community security group for their “ongoing dedication to keeping us safe”.
It said in a statement yesterday: “As we process this awful attack, let's wrap our arms around West Bloomfield and our state's Jewish community. We are stronger together.”
The statement continued: “We are extraordinarily grateful and relieved that no children or congregants were seriously injured in today’s assault at Temple Israel. We extend our most sincere thanks to the first responders and safety personnel for their courage, professionalism and swift action.
“Our thoughts are with the Temple Israel director of security who was injured during the incident, and we wish him a full and speedy recovery. We are also deeply appreciative of our local law enforcement agencies and Jewish Community Security… for their ongoing dedication to keeping our Jewish community safe.”
The body added: “We remain steadfast in our commitment to vigilance and security, even as we continue to live proud, vibrant Jewish lives – at our temples and synagogues, in our schools, and throughout our Jewish organisations. Finally, we thank the community for the outpouring of support, compassion, and concern during this difficult moment.”
The Temple Israel shul was built in 1980, though the congregation was founded in Detroit in 1941.
At that time and in the years that followed, Jewish refugees from Europe were flooding into the US to escape the Nazi regime – and many found their new home in West Bloomfield.
Jack Simony, director general of the US Auschwitz Jewish Centre Foundation, said: “Thousands of Holocaust survivors rebuilt their lives in West Bloomfield... In 1984, they opened the first free-standing Holocaust museum in the United States, steps from Temple Israel. They did not build a museum to the past. They built a warning about the future.
“Temple Israel is not just a synagogue. It is proof that Jewish life endures.”
Simony continued: “We know how violence against Jews begins. It rarely begins with bullets. But when bullets come, the warning signs have already been ignored,” adding that that the attack was “one of those warnings” and “demands more than statements”.
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