Gaza - More than 100 aid organizations warned on Wednesday that "mass starvation" was spreading in Gaza ahead of the US top envoy's visit to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and an aid corridor.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than two million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of unmitigated assault.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – effectively sidelining the existing UN-led system.

A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children, and Oxfam, warned that "our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away."

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The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings, and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

The statement came a day after the US said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on Gaza and may then visit the Middle East.

Witkoff comes with "a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters.

Israel has maintained a near-total aid blockade as Gaza's population suffers extreme scarcities and ongoing attacks.

In their statement, the humanitarian organizations said that warehouses with tons of supplies were sitting untouched just outside Gaza, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods.

"Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions," the signatories said. "It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage."

"The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access."

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the "horror" facing Palestinians in Gaza under Israeli military attack was unprecedented in recent years.

The head of Gaza's largest hospital said Tuesday 21 children had died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days.

More than two dozen Western countries recently urged an immediate end to the war, saying suffering in Gaza had "reached new depths."

Israel has slaughtered at least 59,106 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, according to the territory's health ministry, though the true number is believed to be far higher.