The Israeli cabinet is being pushed to fast-track a new law that would compel doctors to force-feed up to 120 Palestinian prisoners being held without charge in "administrative detention", some of whom have been on hunger strike for more than 40 days.

The law is designed to overcome objections from organisations representing Israel's medical community – including the country's National Bioethics Council, its highest medical ethics authority – which have said they will resist the new legislation.

The hunger strikers are demanding an end to a long-term practice in which Palestinians deemed by Israel to be a security risk being held for extended periods without charge or trial. Detention orders are issued by a military court and can be renewed every six months.

A number of other prisoners in Israeli prisons have also joined the hunger strike.

According to a lawyer for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, the health of 13 of the 70 who have been admitted to Israeli hospitals is deteriorating with some suffering intestinal bleeding.

The situation has already prompted the intervention of the UN general secretary, Ban Ki-moon, who issued a statement on Friday.

"The secretary general is concerned about reports regarding the deteriorating health of Palestinian administrative detainees who have been on hunger strike for over a month," said Ban's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. "He reiterates his long-standing position that administrative detainees should be charged or released without delay."

Sponsored by the public security ministry, the law has been designed to permit a judge to order force-feeding if a prisoner could die – a circumstance some in the Israeli security establishment fear could trigger serious unrest in the West Bank.

The law, which has passed the first of three readings in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, comes in response to the opposition of some doctors and the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) to the force-feeding of prisoners.

According to Israeli media reports, IMA representatives have told the office of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, that its members would refuse to co-operate.

The prisoners on hunger strike amount to almost two-thirds of the 191 Palestinian prisoners being held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons at the end of April, several dozen of whom are in Israeli hospitals.

Ziva Mira, a spokesman for IMA, said last week: "Force-feeding is torture, and we can't have doctors participating in torture."

The Israeli government, for its part, argues that prisoners on hunger strike at the US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay have been force-fed.

The row comes as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Yoram Cohen, the head of Israel's domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, had reportedly advised Netanyahu not to negotiate with the hunger strikers.

The issue of ending administrative detention is complicated by the fact that it would require legislation to bring the practice to an end.

The last major hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails ended in 2012 with a compromise deal that led to five being released and others held in solitary allowed to associate with other prisoners if they promised not to commission terrorist acts from prison, a deal Haaretz reports that Cohen believes was a mistake. He claimed prisoners reneged on the agreement.