Belgium has closed its airspace to Israel-bound weapons during the Gaza ceasefire, shredding the idea it actually means something. Right, so Belgium has blocked its airspace to weapons heading to Israel, including flights that don’t land, during a period everyone is calling a ceasefire, but of course we all know isn’t really one. Israel is still firing. That pulls away a prop people were leaning on without realising it: the idea that once a ceasefire is announced, everyone else can behave as if the genocide has slid into a safer phase. Belgium isn’t doing that. It’s acting like the violence still carries consequences that come back up the chain to anyone who keeps the routes open. Governments don’t close airspace when they think something is winding down. They close it when they expect the damage to continue and they don’t want their fingerprints on it. So either the ceasefire is stabilising things, or Belgium wouldn’t need to shut its skies. Both can’t be true at the same time. And once one country treats the ceasefire as something that doesn’t actually protect third parties, it stops being a confidence blanket for anyone else still pretending it does. Right, so Belgium has closed its airspace to aircraft carrying weapons and military equipment bound for Israel, including so-called technical stopovers that used to slip through as paperwork exercises, and it has done it at the exact moment everyone is being told the Gaza war has entered a calmer, managed phase. Belgium didn’t make a speech and it didn’t issue a moral warning. It physically blocked its airspace so weapons can’t pass through. That matters because governments only do that when they think whatever those weapons will be used for is still going to cause trouble later. If Belgium believed the ceasefire had changed anything in real terms, it wouldn’t be closing routes now. It would be standing back and letting the process run. Closing the route is Belgium saying, without saying it, that it doesn’t believe the risk has dropped.