Prof. Alon Pikarsky, director of the surgical department at the Hadassah Medical Center, stated that he believes the injury sustained by Hamas terrorist at the center of the Sde Teiman case was self-inflicted and not the result of abuse by IDF soldiers.
Pikarski stated in a letter in response to attorney Ephraim Demari, who represents one of the soldiers, that he believes the terrorist was injured as a result of the self-insertion of the object and not because the soldiers guarding him abused him and explained his reasoning.
He wrote, "According to his initial examination, there was an injury to the neck, chest, as well as rectal bleeding. There was no sign of injury to the anus itself at the time of his arrival."
"After an initial examination and treatment of the chest injury," Prof. Pikarsky continued, "he was transferred to undergo a CT scan. As part of this test, a contrast agent was also inserted into the scrotum (through the anus). Even in this operation, no injury or any unusual problem in the anus is described."
"During the surgery, a manual examination was performed through the anus, and there was no description of injury to the anus itself," he added.
Pikarski explained that "since there was an injury to the rectum, there is no doubt that it was the insertion of a foreign body that caused the injury. However, there is great doubt regarding the method and mechanism of the introduction of the foreign body, which caused the injury to the rectum."
He also wrote that "Insertion by an external party, certainly of a wide object (such as these or a broom stick) would mean an injury to the anus itself (in addition to injury to the rectum) and clear signs of this injury."
Pikarski emphasized that it is possible that the terrorist inserted the object into himself, since "it is the self-insertion of a foreign body, which can equally cause a rupture in the perineum, that will not cause injury to the anus itself, since the introducer (the patient himself) will ensure a gentle and non-traumatic insertion of the foreign body ".