The department receives over one thousand petitions from patients and their family members who have been prevented by the Israeli security authorities from leaving the territory for the purpose of receiving medical treatment not available in their place of residence. In addition, the department handles applications from medical personnel from the territory asking to leave for education programs and training courses related to their fields of specialization and to contact their colleagues in the global medical community. In accordance with the contents of the complaint PHR operates in the following ways:

• Review of patients’ medical files by doctors volunteering for PHR; ongoing contact with our volunteer doctors and Palestinian doctors.

• Filing petitions to Israeli authorities (Gaza District Coordination Office and the Civilian Affairs Administration on behalf of Palestinian patients who were denied access by Israel to medical treatment.

• Filing petitions to Israeli authorities on behalf of medical personnel and medical students who are denied access to their place of work and education facilities.

• Coordination of ambulances’ passage in the West Bank, and during Israeli incursions into Gaza.

• Filing complaints to Israeli authorities in cases of suspicion regarding war crimes, violations of international law, torture or abuse, and breaches of medical ethics. 

• PHR-Israel's volunteer doctors visit prisoners and, if necessary, conduct independent physical exams, results and recommendations of which are transmitted to the prison facility.

• Filing claims to the courts on behalf of patients and medical personnel.

Information compiled during our activities enables us to point out fundamental problems related to the infringement of the right to health in the broadest sense of the concept, of the Palestinian population. This we do both on the individual and the systemic level, and it assists us in working towards changing policies.