Rabbi Israel Zeitoun was born in Tunis in 1840. From his youth he was a gentle boy who sought the company of scholars, thirsty for knowledge and indifferent to worldly vanities. As a child he studied under Rabbi Yeshua Bessis and Rabbi Avraham Cohen Yitzchaki, attending each Friday night the study hall where Kabbalah was taught, and later under Rabbi Avraham Hadjaj, whom he loved like a father and whose book Zaro shel Avraham he published.

In 1898 he became av beit din of the great rabbinical court of Tunis, alongside the dayanim Rabbi Moshe Chaim Zeitoun, Rabbi Yaakov Elhaik and Rabbi David Nathan Djaoui; together they answered thousands of questions from every town in Tunisia. On the death of Rabbi Eliyahu Zerach in 1918 he was chosen chief rabbi of Tunisia, a post he held for the rest of his life.

He corresponded with the great sages of his day, from Rabbi Avraham Abichatzeira of Mogador to Rabbi Yitzchak Palagi of Izmir, as well as the rabbis of Tangier, Algiers, Tripoli, Livorno and Jerusalem. Part of his responsa was published posthumously as Mishpat Katuv, along with Zayit Raanan on the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim; hundreds more remain in manuscript.

He passed away on 18 Av 5681 (1921).