An Italian judge has issued an international arrest warrant for Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather accused of kidnapping his grandson, Eitan Biran, the Italian press reported Wednesday.

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Biran, 6, is the sole survivor of a cable car crash in northern Italy in May that killed 14 people, including his father, Amit Biran, his mother, Tal Peleg, his one-year-old brother, Tom, and his great-grandparents Barbara Cohen Konisky and Itshak Cohen.

After the tragedy, the boy was assigned to the custody of his paternal aunt, Aya Biran, who lived near Eitan's family in the city of Pavia, where Amit, his father, studied medicine.

Peleg, the child's maternal grandfather, allegedly abducted the boy by taking him to Israel in September.

A warrant was also issued for Gabriel Abutubul Alon, a 50-year-old Israeli man who allegedly drove the car in which Eitan was taken to the Swiss city of Lugano and then flown to Tel Aviv on a private jet.

According to the Italian prosecutor, Peleg and Alon carried out "a well prepared strategic plan" for the abduction of the child and bringing him to Israel with them.

Judge Iris Ilotovich-Segal of a Tel Aviv family court ruled on October 25 that the child must be returned to Italy and to the care of his paternal aunt.

The decision was released in view of the Hague Convention regarding the abduction of minors.

"We are waiting to see what will happen at the international level, i.e. the response of the Israeli authorities to the international arrest warrant," Pavia Prosecutor Mario Venditti told the Italian wire service Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) following the judge's ruling. "Then we will proceed with the closure of the investigation and the request for a trial."

On Thursday, a Tel Aviv family court is expected to hear the appeal submitted by Peleg and his wife, Eitan's grandmother, against its October 25 ruling. The family is reportedly also working via legal channels in Italy to annul the aunt's guardianship.

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Judge Iris Ilotovich-Segal of a Tel Aviv family court ruled on Monday that Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of the Stresa–Mottarone cable car crash disaster in May must be handed by to the custody of his aunt in Italy.

The decision was released in view of the Hague Convention regarding the abduction of minors following a dispute between the aunt and the family in Israel.

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"The grandfather has taken the kid far away from his regular place of living," wrote the judge, enforcing the decision that the boy, who lost his parents, brother, and two great-grandparents, must go back to Italy and take back residence under the guardianship of his paternal aunt, Aya Biran.

"The does not concur with the grandfather's notion that Israel is Eitan's regular place of living nor the notion that the boy has two residences," added judge Ilotovich-Segal.

Furthermore, the Israeli court has ordered the grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, to pay NIS 70,000 ($21,800) in court fees. Meanwhile,e Italian authorities continue to investigate the man for the alleged kidnapping.

Apart from the Bira family members, another nine people died when a cable car plunged to the ground along the mountain of Mottarone in Northern Italy. After the accident, Eitan moved in with his paternal aunt, Aya Biran, but was soon after taken by his maternal grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, across the nearby border of Switzerland and then on a private jet to Tel Aviv.

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On Monday morning, at the peak of Mottarone mountain in Italy, operations began to remove the cable car from the tragedy that killed 14 people in May, including 5-year-old Israeli Eitan Biran's parents, brother and great-grandparents.

Over the past several days, firefighters cut down approximately 80 surrounding trees in order to effectively remove the cable car via helicopter.

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A complex undertaking, it is expected to take anywhere between 7 to 10 days.

Italian police had arrested three people in connection with the Stresa-Mottarone cable car crash, whose 14 victims included nearly an entire Israeli family.

Site manager Luigi Nerini, business manager Enrico Perocchio, and chief engineer Gabriele Tadini had all been taken into custody after investigators determined that the cable car's brake system was faulty.

District prosecutor Olimpia Bossi said that the three had known about the technical problem prior to the crash, alleging that they had been aware that the car was operating without brakes since April 26.

Eugenio Corrias contributed to this report. 

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Five-year-old Eitan Biran, the Israeli boy who was the sole survivor of the May 23 cable car disaster in Italy that killed 14 people, including his parents, younger brother, and great grandparents, does not remember the incident and still does not know that his family members are dead, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Tuesday.

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The child, the report added, was released from intensive care after doctors concluded his life was no longer in danger and that he was not suffering from any neurological or internal damage.

According to Corriere della Sera, Biran's aunt and grandmother, together with hospital psychologists, have decided it was still too early to tell the child what happened to his family.

Amit Biran, Eitan's father, reportedly protected his son in his final seconds during the tragic accident, likely saving his life.

On Monday it was reported that Biran had seen "significant improvement" over the weekend, had even started eating on his own, but only soft food, and was speaking with his aunt.

The three suspects in the cable car disaster were allowed to leave prison Sunday after a judge indicated that most of the blame fell on a service technician who intentionally disabled the car's emergency brake because it kept locking spontaneously.

Judge Donatella Banci Buonamici said there wasn't sufficient evidence suggesting the owner of the Mottarone cable car company, Luigi Nerini, or the maintenance chief, Enrico Perocchio, knew the technician had deactivated the brake on several occasions even before the May 23 disaster.

After evaluating the prosecutors' case and their request for the continued detention of the three, Buonamici ordered those two freed while allowing the technician, Gabriele Tadini, to leave under house arrest. The three men left the Verbania prison early Sunday, accompanied by their lawyers.

The tragedy occurred when the lead cable of the Mottarone funicular overlooking Lake Maggiore in northern Italy snapped and the emergency brake failed to prevent the cable car from reeling backward down the support line. The cable car pulled off the line entirely when it hit a support pylon, crashed to the ground and then rolled down the mountain until it was stopped by a stand of trees.

It is not known why the cable snapped.

The Italian region of Piedmont observed a minute of silence at noon Sunday, and flags were flying at half-staff to mark the moment one week ago when the disaster struck.

Tadini admitted during questioning that he had left a fork-shaped bracket on the cable car's emergency brake to disable it because it kept locking on its own while the car was in service, said his lawyer Marcello Perillo.

Speaking to reporters outside the Verbania prison, Perillo said Tadini never would have left the bracket in place if he thought the lead cable would snap, as it did.

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