Bahrain and Qatar on Sunday called on their citizens to leave unrest-swept Syria after the United Arab Emirates also advised its citizens to stay away.

The call, issued on the day the Arab League was deciding on sanctions against Damascus over its deadly crackdown on dissent, was issued because of instability in Syria, said Bahrain's foreign ministry.

Israeli warplanes watched two strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory, an army spokesman said in a statement Sunday.

"In response to rocket fire towards Israel this weekend, the airforce targeted sites of terrorist activity in the south and the center of the Gaza strip during the night," said the spokesman.

Morocco's moderate Islamist party won a parliamentary election for the first time, preliminary results showed Saturday, the latest religious party to achieve huge gains on the back of the Arab Spring.

The victory by the Justice and Development Party (PJD) comes just one month after Islamists won Tunisia's post-revolution election and days before their predicted surge in Egyptian polls.

Leading Egyptian political figure Mohammed el-Baradei said on Saturday he was prepared to forgo a presidential bid if asked by the country's military rulers to be interim prime minister, his office said.

El-Baradei, who met earlier with the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said he was "ready to renounce the idea of being a candidate in the presidential election if officially asked to form a cabinet."

Arab finance ministers gathered in Cairo on Saturday drew up a list of economic sanctions against Syria that they will present to foreign ministers for adoption, a communique said.

The recommendation -- which includes a ban on Syrian officials visiting any Arab country and the freezing of government assets -- comes after President Bashar Assad's regime defied an ultimatum to allow in observers amid a lethal crackdown on protest.

Israel warned on Saturday that it would cut the supply of water and electricity to the Gaza Strip if rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas form a unity government.

"The foreign ministry is examining the possibility of Israel pulling out of the Gaza Strip in terms of infrastructure," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the daily Yediot Aharonot website.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused the Arab League on Saturday of "internationalizing" the deadly crisis hitting the country since pro-democracy protests began more than eight months ago.

The accusation came in a letter addressed to the Arab League as ministers from the group gathered in Cairo to draw up sanctions against Syria to punish President Bashar Assad's regime for defying an ultimatum to allow in observers and pressing a deadly crackdown.

Yemen is to hold a snap presidential election on February 21 in keeping with an accord which led to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation, his deputy said in a decree published on Saturday.

Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, to whom Saleh has handed over power under the Gulf-mediated accord, signed the decree which brings forward the election that had initially been due to take place in 2013.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said on Saturday that any Arab League sanctions against Syria must be compatible with the interests of each member country.

"We support Arab unity in regards to the Syrian issue, but as I said during the Arab League ministerial meeting (on Thursday), the interests of our country must be taken into consideration," Judeh said in joint news conference with his Cypriot counterpart.

Iraqi forces need an American troop presence or at least U.S. training forces, President Jalal Talabani has said, according to a Saturday statement on the Iraqi presidency's website.

Regarding "internal security, I believe that the police and army forces are capable of maintaining security as it is now," Talabani said in an interview with Iraqiya television, according to the statement.