Damascus  - A Syrian official said Sunday that Syria will suspend indirect peace talks with Israel after Israeli attacks on Gaza that killed more than 280 people, as thousands protested in Damascus, Al-Arabiya TV reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had said that direct talks between the two countries are possible, if ongoing indirect talks proved fruitful. Over the last couple of months, Turkey has been acting as a mediator for indirect talks.

A key point of contention between Israel and Syria is the Golan Heights, which Israel took from Syria in the 1967 war and still occupies

Meanwhile, thousands of people protested in Syria, demanding a halt to the raids.

Syria's state-run satellite channel showed demonstrators marching across Damascus to denounce the air strikes against Gaza, which have aroused anger throughout the Arab World.

Demonstrators included Palestinians from Syrian refugee camps and Iraqis who live in Syria.

They chanted slogans in support of Gaza's population and against the "brutal Israeli aggression" as well as "Arab silence in the face of the massacre in Gaza."

Demonstrators were holding Syrian and Palestinian flags, others bore aloft photos of Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, a fiery anti-US Shiite cleric resident in Iraq. (dpa)