The family of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has only "a few weeks" left in control of the strife-torn country, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told MPs on Monday.

"The Assad family has no more than a few weeks to remain in control in Syria," Barak told the parliament's prestigious foreign affairs and defense committee in remarks quoted by the committee spokesman.

The Arab League chief said on Monday that snipers and gunfire continue to threaten civilian lives in Syria and called for the shootings to end, as activists heaped criticism on the mission.

But Nabil al-Arabi defended the observers in his first remarks since the Arab monitors were deployed in Syria a week ago, saying the "mission needs more time."

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya will Monday meet the head of an Islamic aid group whose Gaza-bound vessel was stormed by Israeli troops in 2010 in a raid that left nine activists dead.

Haniya, who is making his first trip abroad since Hamas rose to power in Gaza in 2007, will tour the Turkish passenger ship Mavi Marmara and meet relatives of the victims.

A senior Israeli cabinet minister on Monday said that a planned meeting with Palestinian negotiators after a 16-month pause was a positive step but should not be seen as renewal of negotiations.

"This is a positive development," Intelligence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told Israeli public radio.

Bahrain's security forces fired tear gas at anti-government protesters and beat them with iron bars leaving dozens injured, human rights activists and the opposition said on Monday.

The violence erupted Sunday night in the town of Sitra after the funeral of 15-year-old Sayyed Hashem Saeed, who the opposition says was killed when he was struck on the head by a tear gas canister fired by security forces the previous day.

A dissident Yemeni general said on Monday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh wants to sabotage the Gulf-sponsored political transition plan that calls for him to formally resign in February.

The president intends "to overthrow the Gulf initiative and its implementation plan," said a statement from dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, one of Saleh's arch-rivals who defected from the army earlier this year in support of the mass protest movement demanding Saleh's ouster.

The judge in the murder and corruption trial of Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak adjourned the hearing on Monday to the next day to hear the prosecution's arguments.

The fallen dictator was wheeled into court on a stretcher as his trial for the deaths of protesters during the uprising that ousted him in February.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministerial colleagues on Sunday that he planned to strengthen barriers along his country's border with Jordan, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The English-language daily's website said Netanyahu told ministers from his Likud party that he feared illegal migrants who currently enter Israel from Egypt would head to the less-fortified Jordanian border once the Jewish state completes a fence along its southern border.

Egypt's military ruler decreed on Sunday that multi-phase elections for parliament's consultative upper house, the Shoura, will be held over a shorter period, effectively speeding up steps towards drafting a new constitution.

The elections, which had been due to take place in three phases between January 29 and March 11, will now be done in two steps, wrapping up on February 22, according to the decree by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi quoted by state news agency MENA.

Bahraini police fired tear gas grenades to disperse protesters, killing a Shiite protester in the Sunni-ruled country where tensions have been running high, the opposition said on Sunday.

Meanwhile the newly-appointed police chief said 500 officers would be recruited across the country, including Shiites, to help bolster community relations as the country tries to "learn lessons" from past unrest.