Italian consul meets Eitan in Israel, says child is well

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 17 - The Italian consul in Tel Aviv had meeting on Friday with Eitan Biran, the six-year-old Israeli boy who was the sole survivor of the Mottarone mountain cable-car disaster in Piedmont in May and was taken to Israel by his maternal grandfather last weekend, sources said.
    The consul said the orphaned child appeared to be in good health, the sources said.
    The meeting, at which the grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, was present, was organized by the Italian foreign ministry in cooperation with the Israeli authorities.
    Peleg and his ex-wife Etty Peleg, the boy's grandmother, are being probed in Italy for alleged aggravated kidnapping.
    Eitan was reportedly driven across the border to Switzerland and flown to Tel Aviv with a private jet after being taken out by his maternal grandfather on Saturday.
    Eitan's parents, great grandparents and two-year-old brother were among the 14 victims of the disaster.
    Eitan, who moved to Italy with his parents in 2018, had been put into the care of his Italian-based paternal aunt, Aya Biran, after the disaster by the Italian authorities.
    The boy's maternal family had said last month they would mount a legal challenge against this decision.
    Aya Biran, on the other hand, has presented a petition for the boy to be returned to Italy on the basis of the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention.
    Photo: Eitan with his grandfather. (ANSA).