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JERUSALEM (Ma’an) -- An Israeli court in Jerusalem sentenced on Monday prominent Palestinian lawyer Shireen Tareq al-Issawi and her brother to four and eight years in prison for being in contact with, and providing funds to, Palestinian prisoners.

The Israeli court sentenced Shireen al-Issawi, 38, to four years in prison, and her brother Medhat al-Issawi, 42, to eight years in prison.

Amjad Abu Assab, the head of the Jerusalem Committee for Families of Prisoners said that Shireen and Medhat, who come from the Jerusalem-area village of al-Issawiya, were accused of being in contact with Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons and providing them with funds, which Israel considers “terrorism.”

Abu Assab added that Israel had detained Shireen in March 2014, in a campaign carried out against Palestinian lawyers in Jerusalem. Medhat was detained at the same time, and both have been held in administrative detention for two years.

Shireen was held in Israeli detention multiple times over the years, and spent several months under house arrest.

Meanwhile, Medhat has spent more than 20 years in Israeli prisons, and has also been under house arrest. He is married and has a daughter.

Shireen and Medhat are the siblings of well-known Palestinian prisoner Samer al-Issawi, who held a 266-day hunger strike in 2012 and 2013

Samer al-Issawi's hunger strike was one of the longest in history, and brought him close to death. By the time he was released in December 2013, he had become an international "cause celebre" who focused attention on the plight of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.