Court Orders Israeli Boy, 6, Returned to Aunt in Italy

An Israeli court has ordered a that a 6-year-old boy whose parents died in a cable car crash in Italy in May be sent back there to live with his relatives there. The Tel Aviv family court on Monday ordered that Eitan Biran be returned to his paternal aunt Aya Biran in Pavia, in northern Italy. Eitan and his parents were living in Pavia at the time of the accident, that also killed his brother and great grandparents. Last month, his maternal grandfather Shmulik Peleg spirited Eitan out of Italy and brought him to Israel illegally on a private jet. An Italian court had ordered that Eitan’s aunt remain his guardian after he was released from the hospital following the accident. Eitan had lived in Italy since he was a month old.

The Peleg family said in a statement that the court’s decision does not address questions concerning “the well-being and future of the child,” and that they would “continue to fight in all ways possible for Eitan’s benefit, welfare and rights to grow up in Israel as his parents hoped.”