Hamas fighters. An Israeli-Arab dentist was sentenced Thursday to 20 months in prison for transferring funds to Hamas. Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters.

JNS.org – An Israeli-Arab dentist was sentenced Thursday to 20 months in prison for transferring funds to the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terror group Hamas.

Malak Khatib, a 32-year-old dentist from a predominantly Arab village in northern Israel, was convicted of using property for terrorism-related activity and illegally transporting several Palestinian workers in Israel.

Probation officers at the Nazareth District court believe that Khatib was only interested in the money and did not commit the crimes based on ideology or connections to a terror group, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Hamas paid Khatib NIS 1,000 ($257) for each money transfer and NIS 250 ($64) for each Palestinian worker transported illegally across Israel. A month before his arrest, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency detained Khatib while he was traveling to transfer NIS 170,000 ($44,000) to a Hamas activist in Ramallah, Israel National Newsreported. The Shin Bet said it warned Khatib to stop cooperating with Hamas on the transfers.

The case, said the Shin Bet, “uncovers the unending efforts by Hamas to transfer large sums of money that are designed to promote the organization’s activities in Judea and Samaria.”