Middle East crisis live: EU chief says Israel firing on peacekeepers ‘not acceptable’; UN says personnel in Lebanon ‘increasingly in jeopardy’

Operational activity of Unifil peacekeepers has virtually come to a halt, UN official tells security council

• UN peacekeepers say Israel has fired on them deliberately
• How a year of war laid waste to the Gaza Strip – visualised

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

The safety and security of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are “increasingly in jeopardy” and operational activities have virtually come to a halt since since 23 September, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the security council on Thursday evening.

At least 22 people were killed and more than 100 others injured after Israeli airstrikes hit residential areas of central Beirut on Thursday evening. The strikes hit the working-class district of Basta and the Nweiri neighbourhood, the deadliest attacks to target central Beirut since Israel intensified its bombardment campaign on the country two weeks ago. Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported that the strikes were an attempt to assassinate Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group, which it said had failed.

At least 28 people, including women and children, have been killed after an Israeli airstrike hit a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza on Thursday morning. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had responded to 27 fatalities and 54 injuries after the strike on the school turned shelter in Deir al-Balah. The Israeli military said it targeted militants who were operating in the compound.

The Israeli military continued to push on with an offensive that began six days ago, when it sent its troops into Jabaliya, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. Palestinian health officials say at least 130 people have been killed so far in the operation, which Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping. The military has told residents to evacuate an area in which the UN estimates more than 400,000 people are trapped.

Three hospitals in northern Gaza – Indonesian, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals – have been ordered by Israeli forces to evacuate, putting patients’ lives at risk, medics say. The director of Kamal Adwan hospital n northern Gaza said eight patients, mostly children, were at risk inside the intensive care units should the Israeli army force them to evacuate. Israeli bombardment near Kamal Adwan hospital has already caused some damage to the facility, medics said. Officials said they know of many fatalities lying on the roads outside the hospital because of Israeli fire.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, said some Unrwa shelters and services were being forced to shut down for the first time since the war began and that with almost no basic supplies available, hunger was spreading again in northern Gaza, amid witness accounts of bodies lying uncollected in the streets because of the renewed fighting.