Government agents killed at least two suspects in what they say was a developing “Belgian Charlie Hebdo” situation late Thursday.

The suspects opened fire as police began their raid on an apartment above a bakery in the eastern city of Verviers, 70 miles from Brussels. No security personnel were injured.

The public prosecutor’s office has confirmed the deaths of the two suspects, and added there have been arrests of “several” more.

“We’ve averted a Belgian Charlie Hebdo,” an unidentified police officer told La Meuse, according to Fox News.

Magistrate Eric Van der Sypt told journalists at a briefing in Brussels that the terrorists were linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and were close to launching a major attack.

Counter terror raids are underway in the Brussels region at this time, as well as in Verviers, he said, and the terror alert level in the country has been raised to its second highest level.

The raids were part of the security establishment’s investigation into local jihadists who are returning to the country “battle-hardened” from Syria.

Another suspect is currently being detained in a separate part of the country on suspicion of selling arms that were used in last week’s terrorist siege in Paris.

Belgian media reported that suspect had turned himself in Tuesday in the southern city of Charleroi, saying he had been in contact with Amedy Coulibaly, one of the gunmen involved in last week’s Paris terror attacks.

It is not yet known whether the two are connected, nor whether those who were killed Thursday were directly tied to the Paris terror cells.

At least two people are reported dead following a counterterrorism raid in eastern Belgium, according to RTBF, the Belgian public television station.

A third person was seriously wounded in the shootout, which took place in Verviers, the British Telegraph reported.

It is not clear whether the casualties are terror suspects or security personnel. Verviers is a city about 70 miles from Brussels with a population of 55,000.

Federal prosecutors in the country told media a police operation was in process near the center of town but did not confirm casualties. The Belga news agency reported that police activity was continuing in the area.

The alleged terrorists had reportedly returned recently from Syria, according to Belga.

In another part of Belgium, a man suspected of selling the weapons used in last week’s terror attacks in France is also being detained, according to Fox News.

The suspect is being held in Carleroi on suspicion of arms dealing, said a spokesperson for Belgium’s federal prosecution. “Further investigations will have to show whether there is a link with the events in Paris,” he said.

Belgian media reported the suspect turned himself in on Tuesday, saying he had been in contact with Amedy Coulibaly. The ISIS terrorist murdered a French policewoman last Thursday and held more than a dozen people hostage at the Hyper Cacher kosher grocery in Paris, killing four, before he was shot and killed by security forces as they stormed the site at the start of the Sabbath at sunset Friday.

Not even off the lot, the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet is turning into an even bigger lemon than first anticipated by Israeli politicians who fought the deal forced on the Jewish State with a U.S. military aid package by the White House.

A story published over the weekend on the U.S. Air Force website revealed “the F-35 has a fuel temperature threshold, and may not function properly if the fuel temperature is too high.”

The problem was troubling enough that seven USAF bases are testing new ways to “mitigate any possible aircraft shutdowns due to high fuel temperatures in the future,” according to the report” quoted by Defense Aerospace.com.

So far, one fuel tanker has been painted white – at a cost of $3,900 – at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in an attempt to “ensure the F-35 is able to meet its sortie requirements.”

The same idea was tried at Luke AFB shortly after, according to the report, because at Luke, “temperatures can reach beyond 110 degrees (Farenheit).” It was believed that painting the tanks white would “help prevent fuel stored in the tanks from overheating.”

But some technicians came up with an even better idea: “This is the short-term goal to cool the fuel for the F-35; however, the long-term fix is to have parking shades for the refuelers,” according to Chief Master Sgt. Ralph Resch, the 56^th LRS fuels manager for the 56^th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.

Bright white paint may cool off the fuel tankers but it will heat up a conflict in the Middle East faster than you can say “hot target in sight!”

Moreover, many areas of the Middle East reach beyond 120 degrees Farenheit during the summer months. Needless to say, a summer war is also much easier to fight than one in the winter, even without such encouragement. Add in the disadvantage of a fighter jet whose fuel broils in the sun, and the average enemy force would be silly not to plan for a summer conflict.

Nevertheless, Israel ordered its first lot of 19 of the F-35s in 2010 for $2.75 billion, to be delivered in December 2016.

Earlier this month, the cabinet voted to approve a reduced order to buy an additional 14 of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter jets. Also approved was an option to order another 17 of the warplanes in 2017.

A final deal to purchase a total of 50 of the warplanes for two squadrons was approved by the Israeli government cabinet in October of this year, at a cost well above the original price tag.

A ministerial panel headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak made the initial approval in September 2010 for the purchase of 20 F-35 fighter jets.

That decision was made despite intense opposition from a number of senior defense officials over the high cost of the deal. For a price of nearly $3 billion, Israel would receive the 20 F-35s in 2016, with an option to buy another 75 of the aircraft.

The F-35 already had numerous design compromises at that point that irked Israeli leaders. Many Israeli systems were rejected by the U.S. government, which refused to allow Lockheed Martin to install them on the aircraft.

Because Israel does not have full control over the design and modifications on the F-35, including access to the aircraft’s software codes, its use to the IDF is limited.

By May 2011, Israeli defense officials told the World Tribune the problems with the F-35 were “much worse than we had been told.”

Two months later, the U.S. agreed to allow F-35s purchased by Israel to be rewired in order to accommodate the installation of Israeli electronic warfare system and eventual additions of other sensors and other systems.

Now that the war has ended with the Hamas terrorist rulers of Gaza, the Obama White House has apparently unclenched its fist and allowed the Pentagon to send Israel some of the Hellfire missiles that were on ‘back order.’

Ammunition used by Israeli tanks and other essential military supplies had also been held up due to a new requirement that any military supplies undergo special review by staff at the State Department and the White House.

The mandate came in mid-August during Operation Protective Edge, while Israel was struggling with half a dozen or more broken cease-fires and more than 300,000 internally displaced citizens fleeing Hamas rocket fire.

The hold on military supplies was dubbed an issue of “bureaucracy” according to a senior military official. A special effort was made to appear as though the process had not been intended to convey disapproval by the Obama administration; but it was clear to most media, at least, that the unprecedented procedure had been instigated by an angry president fuming over Israel’s war with Gaza.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is now preparing in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly on Monday and then to meet on Wednesday with President Barack Obama.

The prime minister is planning to “set the record straight” at the United Nations on Monday. It will be interesting to see what happens at his meeting with Obama.

The United States has reportedly sent indirect military aid to the Hezbollah terrorist organization, according to information released in a New York Times interview with Hezbollah public relations liaison Mohammed Afif.

The aid, which came in the form of new weapons, was channeled via the Lebanese Army, which closely coordinates with the Hezbollah terrorist group, according to Afif. In addition, U.S. intelligence is being channeled to Hezbollah as well, according to Lebanese sources. This would explain how the terrorist organization was able to pinpoint its first UAV bombing so precisely against the Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group, which is not associated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group and which in fact currently is fighting against the organization. Al Qaeda has denounced ISIS as “too brutal.”

The assistance to Hezbollah, which appears on America’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, comes in stark contrast to the block placed by the Obama White House on a needed transfer to Israel of Hellfire missiles during this summer’s counter terror Operation Protective Shield in Gaza. The transfer of any weapons and other military hardware to Israel, even routine munitions requests, was temporarily blocked by the State Department and the White House, which required a double signature on any delivery. The hold was released following an intense protest against the action by Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. However, any form of American military aid – once a ‘given’ by Israel’s “closest friend and ally” – continues to be scrutinized by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry; an unprecedented situation in relations between the two countries.

“We need to open up a new page with world media, with the Arabs and internationally,” Afif told NYT. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has referred to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a “monster.” He equated the battle with ISIS as “a battle of life and death no less important than fighting the Israeli enemy, as [its] actions and objectives only serve Israel.”

Afif, meanwhile, has blamed the United States for creating ISIS in the first place by supporting opposition forces in their fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Hezbollah supports with guerrilla fighters. “This beast you which you raised up, as in past cases, you find it’s dangerous for you,” he commented in the report.

While U.S. President Barack Obama has talked about starting air strikes against ISIS in Syria as well as in Iraq – where American attacks have been taking place for several weeks – he has yet to carry out the threat. Both Russia and Iran, which generously supports both Syria and Hezbollah, have warned the U.S. not to venture into Syrian air space without permission from Assad. Since the U.S. has been arming rebels to oppose him, such authorization is unlikely.

The White House has unblocked the weapons shipment to Israel that they had recently blocked, according to a report on Israel’s Channel 1 TV. Among the more notable weapon blocked were Hellfire missiles.

The White House blocked the weapons shipment, after learning that Israel had standardized procedures in place to purchase weapons, and didn’t need to go through the White House for any approval.

President Obama reportedly blocked the shipment to show his disapproval of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

As ground forces of the IDF prepare to enter Gaza, Israel’s Air Force, Navy and Security Agency (Shin Bet) intelligence agents continue to operate on other fronts.

Israeli civilians are taking a deep breath and continuing to carry on their daily affairs as much as humanly possible given the situation and the missiles being fired at their families and homes.

Gaza terrorist groups are competing to see who can launch the missile at Israel that flies the farthest, fastest. All are deeply frustrated by their failure to score a significant “hit,” according to military analysts.

Hamas has made a number of attempts to strike the Dimona nuclear reactor. Each time, the group’s newest acquisition, the Syrian-made M302 missile, has failed to deliver — instead, it was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.

The M302 as a range of 160 kilometers (100 miles) and carries a warhead weighing approximately 144 kilograms (318 pounds.) From Gaza, it can reach as far as Nahariya, north of Haifa, but it is not clear whether that is with or without explosives in the warhead.

Late Thursday Hamas claimed that it deployed another new missile in its arsenal: the Iranian-made Sajl — or “Sejjil” (‘baked clay’ in Persian) rocket. The group said that so far it has launched 10 of these longer-range missiles — but the claim makes no sense.

It may instead be part of the signature disinformation campaign that marks the intermediate part of a Hamas military campaign — that which includes boasting, threats, the use of human shields, misinformation and wild exaggerations.

The true “medium range” Iranian Sejjil-2 is a ballistic missile that weighs 21.5 tons and measures 18.2 meters in length, with a diameter of 1.25 – 1.50 meters. It is propelled by solid fuel and has an operational range of 2,000 kilometers, and allegedly is harder to detect by anti-missile systems, as it is covered with anti-radar material. The missile is also more efficient as it requires less amount of time for prelaunch preparations, according to a 2009 statement by Iran’s Press TV.

It is odd to think of Iran gifting such a powerful, valuable weapon to Hamas, when the entire length of the State of Israel is only 260 miles, or 418 kilometers. But if Hamas were to fire such a weapon, one has to wonder where it would land; probably not anywhere in the Jewish State. With a range of 2,000 kilometers, one wrong launch could land Hamas in very hot water with its patrons, and Israel’s hostile northern neighbors.

Meanwhile, here is a quick guide to the rest of the arsenal currently being held by Hamas and its allies in Gaza, courtesy of the IDF:

Hamas Short range (15-20 km) Over 1,000 units of self-produced rockets (15 km) Over 2,500 units of smuggled rockets (15 km) Approx. 200 units of self-produced Grad rockets (20 km) Approx. 200 units of smuggled Grad rockets (20 km) Medium range (up to 45 km) Approx. 200 units of self-produced improved Grad rockets (45 km) Approx. 1,000 units of smuggled improved Grad rockets (45 km) Medium-Long range (up to 80 km) Over 400 units of self-produced medium range rockets Several dozen of rockets (80 km) Long range (100-200 km) Tens of long-range rockets (100-200 km) In Total: Approximately 6,000 rockets

Palestinian Islamic Jihad Short range (15-20 km) Approx. 1,000 units of self-produced rockets (15 km) Approx. 1,000 units of smuggled rockets (15 km) Approx. 300 units of self-produced Grad rockets (20 km) Approx. 100 units of smuggled Grad rockets (20 km) Medium range (up to 45 km) Approx. 200 units of self-produced improved Grad rockets (45 km) Approx. 600 units of smuggled improved Grad rockets (45 km) Medium-Long range (up to 80 km) Over 100 units of self-produced medium range rockets Several medium-long range rockets (80 km) In Total: Approximately 5,500 rockets

Other Terror Organizations Short range (15-20 km) Hundreds of self-produced and smuggled rockets including Grad rockets (15 km) Medium range (up to 45 km) Dozens of self-produced and smuggled improved Grad rockets (45 km)