The Dispatch
A Telegram post published to the @beholdisraelchannel announced that “the pager operation has been upgraded.” The post, authored by Amir Tsarfati — a former Israeli Defense Forces major and founder of the evangelical intelligence ministry Behold Israel — reported that dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers in Shiraz had been killed after opening canned fish. The fish had been air-dropped by Israel disguised as food aid. Those who handled the cans experienced explosions consistent with booby-trapped devices. Casualties in Shiraz were described as significant. No source was named. The post received 2,618 thumbs-up reactions.
For context, this correspondent notes the following. In September 2024, Israeli intelligence distributed 5,000 PETN-loaded pagers to Hezbollah operatives through a shell corporation registered in Hungary. The devices detonated simultaneously, killing at least 37 people and wounding over 3,000. The West Point Lieber Institute, the International Bar Association, and a United Nations panel of human rights experts subsequently assessed this operation as a likely violation of international law under Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which prohibits the deployment of booby-traps disguised as apparently harmless portable objects. The pager operation has been independently verified. No independent verification has been obtained as to whether the fish in question displayed explosive tendencies before they were contained within the packaging. It’s also worth mentioning, that fish are not pagers.
This correspondent further notes that canned fish is classified internationally as a food product — a categorisation that would require significant revision if the Tsarfati report were confirmed. Sources described as familiar with the operation were quoted in a separate communiqué as stating, “So long, and thanks for all the fish.” The provenance of this communiqué has not been established. The fish remains unclassified.
Source Block
Primary source: Amir Tsarfati — Telegram @beholdisraelchannel post 73882
Archived copy: archive.org
Screenshot on file: screenshots/tsarfati-canned-fish-source.png
Retrieved: 2026-03-27Supporting sources:
- West Point Lieber Institute — pager operation legal analysis: https://lieber.westpoint.edu/well-it-depends-explosive-pagers-attack-revisited/
- The New Arab — pager attack and international law: https://www.newarab.com/news/did-israeli-pager-attack-hezbollah-violate-international-law
- IBA — Lebanon device attacks: https://www.ibanet.org/lebanon-device-attacks
Related TRUTHS™ post: https://www.apsyop.com/truths/canned-fish-is-not-a-war-crime/
