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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli military authorities should immediately charge or release a Palestinian detained since Dec. 17, 2011, without charge on the basis of secret evidence, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.

The group says Khader Adnan’s family, lawyer, and doctors from an Israeli rights group warned that his health has deteriorated seriously and that Israeli authorities had shackled him to his hospital bed.

“Israel should immediately end its unlawful administrative detention of Adnan and charge or release him,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“He may be approaching death from his hunger strike, and yet Israel is chaining him to his hospital bed without bothering to even charge him with any wrongdoing,” she said in a statement.

Whitson noted he had not been charged with a crime and urged Israel to "end, today, before it’s too late, its almost two-month-long refusal to inform Adnan of any criminal charge or evidence against him."

Palestinian detainees are expected to join Adnan's hunger strike Sunday.

Prisoners warned in a letter to the general director of the prisons that the situation may escalate if anything happens with Adnan, and they demanded his release.

Solidarity activists in the United States took to the streets in Chicago, Washington, and New York City on Wednesday to protest Adnan's detention along with all other political prisoners.

Activists held signs reading "Dignity over food" and waved Palestinian flags. They chanted: "Khader Adnan epitomizes the resilience, the steadfastness, and resistance of the Palestinian people."

The Palestinian Authority's prisoners affairs minister Issa Qaraqe says Egypt is intervening with Israel to free Adnan, following a request from the Palestinians.

He added that the Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad made their calls to several countries in order to request that they intervene and release the prisoner.

The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process said he is following the case "with concern", calling on Israel "to do everything in its power to preserve the health of the prisoner and resolve this case while abiding by all legal obligations under international law."

Robert Serry says his office "is following up on some of the issues related to the question of prisoners, particularly on the use of administrative detention, which should only be employed in exceptional circumstances," a statement said.