Israel yesterday urged its citizens and foreign Jews to exercise special caution against possible militant attack when travelling over the Passover holiday as tensions in the Gaza Strip rise.

The government routinely issues warnings ahead of Jewish holidays, especially the week-long Passover festival that begins next week, but yesterday’s advisory warned of an increased threat because of the spiral in cross-border fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

“Following events in the Gaza Strip, terrorist elements intend to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish individuals abroad ahead of, and during, the Passover holiday in the Mediterranean basin and in the far east,” the national anti-terror bureau said in a communique issued by the Prime Minister’s office.

On April 2, Israeli aircraft struck a car in the Gaza Strip, killing three militant members of the Islamic Hamas movement, in a strike it said was aimed at foiling the kidnapping of Israelis holidaying in Egypt during Passover.

On Thursday, an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an Israeli school bus wounding two people including a minor, who was critically injured. Hamas said the act was in revenge for the hits on its men.

A string of retaliatory Israeli air raids has since killed at least 18 Palestinians in Gaza, with militants in the coastal strip firing dozens of rockets and mortar rounds into Israel.