JERUSALEM (AP) – Italian relatives of the only 6-year-old boy who survived a car crash in northern Italy say Monday he was working to repatriate Israel as Italian authorities opened a search for him.
Eitan Biran is embroiled in a bitter war of attrition between his grandmother in Israel and his parents in Italy. Relatives in Italy say the boy was illegally transported to Israel over the weekend. Eitan and his parents were living in Italy at the time of the accident.
Fourteen people, including Eitan’s parents and a younger brother, were killed when a cable car crashed into a hillside on May 23 after the rope broke. After being released from a hospital in Turin after several weeks of intensive care, Italian court officials ruled that the child could live with his paternal aunt near Pavia, in northern Italy.
Pavia Mayor Mario Fracassi says on Monday evening that Pavia’s lawyer opened an investigation into Biran’s abduction, Italian journalists LaPresse said. He did not elaborate.
Aya Biran, Eitan’s aunt, told reporters on Sunday that the boy’s grandfather – Shmulik Peleg – had taken him on a planned trip, and then flew him without permission to Israel.
Corriere della Sera of Italy said his grandfather traveled with Eitan in a rented car to Lugano, Switzerland, where he boarded a flight to Tel Aviv.
The boy’s relatives in Israel have denied that Eitan was arrested and are insisting that he do what the boy wants.
His uncle in Italy, Or Nirko, wrote a Hebrew article on Monday, saying that Eitan’s home is in Italy and his family is doing everything possible to get him back safely.
Grandfather “violently” removed him “from their family in Italy, Nirko told Israel Channel 13. He said Eitan spoke Hebrew, but his main language was Italian.
“She has no friends in Israel. Nothing prepares him for the scene. He has been going to school in Italy for four years, “Nirko told Israeli radio station 103FM.
Nirko said the couple had been in contact with the Israeli ambassador to Italy and Israeli and Italian officials.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, when asked by reporters on Monday about the boy’s case, said: “We are looking at what has happened to help.”