A man rammed his vehicle into a synagogue in the Detroit metropolitan area in Michigan on Thursday, before engaging in shooting with law enforcement. He was later found dead in his car.
On the same day, authorities also announced that one person was killed when a gunman opened fire at Old Dominion University in Virginia, in an attack being investigated as an “act of terror”.
The United States has been on high alert for domestic attacks after it launched its war on Iran alongside Israel on February 28, now in its 14th day.
Here is more about what happened.
What happened at the synagogue in Michigan?
On Thursday at 05:33 GMT, FBI director Kash Patel announced on X that FBI personnel were responding to an apparent vehicle ramming and “active shooter situation” at Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan.
Oakland Sheriff Mike Bouchard told reporters that a car had been rammed into the synagogue, which also houses an early learning centre for children. The driver then fired a gun at security personnel at the site.
“Security saw him, engaged him in gunfire,” Bouchard said.
The assailant was later found dead in the vehicle, which had caught fire, Bouchard said. It is unclear how the fire started. The cause of death was not immediately clear, but authorities later said he had been fatally shot by security officials.
Bouchard said there were no other injuries in the incident, and none of the synagogue’s staff, teachers or the 140 children present in its early childhood centre was hurt.
However, 30 law enforcement officers were taken to hospital after inhaling smoke that filled the synagogue from the fire that erupted in the assailant’s vehicle, Bouchard said. One security official was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious, but was otherwise uninjured.
Where did the car ramming take place?
The incident took place at the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
West Bloomfield is a lake township and one of the suburbs surrounding Detroit. These suburbs are home to a large Jewish population.
Temple Israel was founded in 1941. It is considered to be the largest Reform synagogue in the US, serving about 12,000 members.
What do we know about the assailant and his motive?
Authorities identified the assailant as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalised US citizen born in Lebanon.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Ghazali arrived in the US in 2011 on a relative visa as the spouse of a US citizen. He received his citizenship in 2016.
“I can confirm that the FBI is leading this investigation as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community,” Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan of the FBI Detroit Field Office said during a news conference in Michigan on Thursday.
What happened in Virginia?
The FBI identified the gunman who opened fire at Old Dominion University as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support for ISIL (ISIS).
Authorities said Jalloh opened fire shortly before 10:49am local time (14:49 GMT) in Constant Hall, the centre of the university’s college of business.
In a post on X on Thursday afternoon, Patel said students had helped to subdue Jalloh, who was later found dead at the scene. How he was killed was not immediately clear.
“The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” Patel said.
While it is not clear what the motive of the attacker was – or who the targets were – the incident is being investigated as an “act of terror”.
Has there been a rise in the number of such incidents in recent years?
Yes. Attacks on both Jewish and Muslim communities worldwide have been on the rise since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.
Attacks against the Jewish community
Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League tallied 9,354 anti-Semitic incidents in the US in 2024, a 5 percent increase over 2023 and a record high since it began keeping track in 1979. The group said the figure represented a 344 percent increase over the past five years and a 893 percent increase over the last decade.
In late January, a car crashed into the entrance of the headquarters of a Jewish religious order in New York City. No injuries were reported. Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
In May 2025, two Israeli diplomats were shot and killed outside an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington, DC.
The gunman, who was charged with terrorism and hate crimes, is believed to have been motivated by the Israel-Gaza conflict.
He told police on the scene, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to the charging documents. Witnesses recounted hearing him chant “Free Palestine” after he was taken into custody.
In February 2025, authorities in Florida launched a hate crime investigation after a man opened fire on two men he thought were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors.
The victims survived. One was shot in the shoulder and the other in the forearm.
This pattern has also been observed beyond the US. Early on Friday morning, Dutch police opened an investigation into an arson attack on a synagogue in Rotterdam. No one was injured in the fire, which is now over, and no arrests have been made, the city’s police said.
In December 2025, two armed men killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in Australia. The shooting was the deadliest attack of its kind in 30 years in the country.
Suspect Sajid Akram, 50, an Indian national, was shot and killed by police during the attack. His son, Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who remains in prison, has been charged with terrorism and 15 murders.
Similarly, since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began, hate crimes against Muslims in the US and beyond have seen a rise.
On Tuesday, civil rights group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released an annual report saying the US has become an increasingly hostile environment for Muslims.
CAIR said its offices across the country had received 8,683 complaints of anti-Muslim discrimination nationwide in 2025, a slight increase from the previous year.
It was the highest volume of complaints for CAIR since it began publishing its civil rights report in 1996.
In February this year, Manchester Central Mosque in the UK reported that a man carrying an axe had walked into the mosque during tarawih prayers attended by worshippers during Ramadan. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said a man in his 20s had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a section 18 assault.
There were about 2,000 worshippers inside at the time, and GMP later confirmed the incident was called in by an off-duty special constable who had been present.
In October 2025, UK police said they were investigating a suspected arson attack on a mosque in southern England as a “hate crime”. Officers had been called to the mosque on Phyllis Avenue in Peacehaven, East Sussex, just before 10pm (22:00 GMT) on October 4.
In October 2023, six-year-old Palestinian American Wadea al‑Fayoume was stabbed in Illinois, and his mother was critically injured. The assailant, Joseph Czuba, died aged 73 in June 2025, in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
In November 2023, three young Palestinian men were shot near a university campus in Vermont. The police said the victims were speaking Arabic and two of them were wearing a keffiyeh when attacked. The students survived. The police arrested suspect Jason J Eaton the same month.
