A 25-year-old Israeli woman, Lee Zeitouni, was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Tel Aviv on Friday morning, and the alleged driver, a French national, has allegedly fled the country along with another passenger in the car and their families. Claude Issac, 40, was allegedly at the wheel of a black BMW SUV registered to his friend, Eric Rubic, 38, who was in the passenger seat, when they careened into Zeitouni early Friday morning. Zeitouni was crossing the street on foot as she headed to teach a Pilates class at the Pilates Israeli Center on Mazeh Street in Tel Aviv. The impact of the hit threw Zeituni 20 meters into the air, propelling her into the opposite lane of traffic where she was struck again by a different vehicle. Rather than stopping or slowing down after hitting Zeitouni, witnesses reported the SUV continued down the road at a high speed. "I was in the lobby of the building where I live, and was preparing to leave the building when I heard a loud bang from the road," a witness to the accident said. "I went outside to see what had happened, and I saw a young woman lying on the road. Some people tried to help her but I believe she died on the spot." A Magen David Adom ambulance arrived at the site of the accident, but Zeitouni was declared dead at the scene. Zeitouni will be laid to rest at 6 p.m. on Sunday at the cemetery in Kibbutz Neve Ur. The hunt for the driver Tel Aviv District Police opened an immediate investigation into the incident, launching a broad search for the vehicle, which according to witnesses had significant damage to its front following the accident. The investigation revealed that a few minutes prior to the fatal accident, someone dialed 100, the police emergency line, to report an SUV speeding recklessly near the Diamond Exchange in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Other witnesses reported seeing the same vehicle proceed to Nordau Boulevard in northern Tel Aviv. Minutes after the accident, social justice protesters in tents on Nordau told police they saw a vehicle matching the BMW's description stopped near Yehoshua Bin-Nun street. Two men, they said, stepped out to assess the damage to the front of the vehicle, before getting back in and driving off. Some witnesses said the driver did not stop at red lights. Police launched an extensive hunt for the perpetrators and the vehicle but still had not located them after several hours. Only 50 vehicles of the BMW's type had been imported to Israel, and police began tracking a list of all owners of cars of that specific make and model. A citizen residing in a building on Mazeh Street where the accident took place told police that a vehicle similar to the one described was parked in the second floor parking lot of her building. Police arrived to inspect the vehicle, but by then it was too late. Rubic, the car's owner, had withdrawn a large sum of money from his bank account, and together with Issac and both of their families, had fled the country to France. "In the morning, I saw family members sitting in the lobby with their suitcases and whispering. Eventually, they got up and left in a hurry. Only that night, when I heard they were connected to the crime, did I understand why they fled," the landlady who owns the apartment rented by one of suspects said. Bringing the criminals to justice Zeitouni's friends, especially her partner Roi Peled, were shocked to hear of her death. Together they built a Facebook page asking for any information concerning the whereabouts of the driver of the vehicle. "We are still looking for the French driver of the vehicle who struck and murdered our Lee and then fled the scene. We will not let such things happen again, for such drivers to go on driving. This issue must appear in the headlines for a long period of time, because we all know that this piece of news today will only be a fading memory tomorrow," they wrote on the page. Only on Saturday, a day after the accident, did Issac, the alleged driver of the vehicle, call the police and tell them he would soon return to Israel. Police suggested he return as soon as he could, but were not hopeful that he would actually do so. Israel Police asked Interpol, the International Police organization, to issue an international warrant for the arrest of both suspects. After their arrest, Israel's Justice Ministry is expected to ask France to extradite them to Israel to stand trial. The process of extraditing criminals from France to Israel can be lengthy. Israel and France did sign a mutual extradition treaty years ago, but over the years, France has not delivered criminals with Israeli citizenship to Israel upon request, and has preferred in some cases to try the criminals in its own courts. Only if the two suspects left France would Interpol be able to arrest them and send them to Israel for trial. Israel for its part has always insisted on handing over criminals with French citizenship to France, upon request, as they did with Ortal Biton and Rozi Ben Haim in 2010. The two were caught at Charles de Gaulle airport in 2001 with nine kilos of cocaine, and after being temporarily released, fled to Israel. Biton's attorney, Sharon Kenan, said on Saturday that he is "wondering why the main reason for the extradition of the suspects is to maintain the good relations between the countries, when it is clear that even if the driver and his friend are caught in France, they will not be handed over to Israel, as in previous cases." Attorney Avi Aviram, an extradition expert, also commented on the case and said, "It's true that France does not usually extradite its citizens, but they may do so in this specific case to avoid a situation in which Israel will not honor similar requests from France in the future."
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