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.

Gaza City/Tel Aviv  - Israel bombed Gaza City's main security compound, which houses a central prison and several security forces headquarters, Sunday morning, killing four people, on the second day of an offensive against the Islamic Hamas movement.

The latest deaths bring to 282 the number of Palestinians, many of them militants, killed since Israel began the offensive shortly before noon on Saturday morning. Over 900 people have been wounded.

Prisoners were seen scrambling over the rubble and fleeing the security compound after the Israeli strike.

Israeli aircraft have struck over 22 times since midnight, after the Israel Air Force hit more than 100 targets in Saturday's sorties.

Cairo - Hamas was preventing casualties from entering Egypt for treatment, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Sunday, a day after Gaza was pounded in Israeli airstrikes that killed have some 270 people.

Egypt had opened its Rafah border and was awaiting for Hamas' to let the casualties into Egypt, Abul Gheit said. Hundreds of Gazans have been wounded in Israel airstrikes and clashes since Saturday.

Abul Gheit's statements came during a press conference with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

There was no independent confirmation that Hamas has blocked the border crossing as no immediate comment from the Islamic movement was available.

Beirut  - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has called for Lebanon and its sovereignty to be respected and not turned in into a platform for launching rockets into neighbouring Israel, radio reports said on Sunday.

Suleiman made his remarks in a surprise visit to southern Lebanon on Saturday, a day after the army dismantled eight Katyusha rockets set to be fired into northern Israel.

He stressed that this can no longer be tolerated following the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces and United Nations International Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that are working on implementing UN Resolution 1701 which ended 33-days of war between Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement and Israel in August 2006.

Washington  - The United States on Saturday urged restraint from Israel in its military operations in the Gaza Strip, but simultaneously offered sharp criticism of Hamas, the organization effectively governing the salient.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Israel needs to avoid civilian deaths in its operations against Hamas. But, in the same statement, Johndroe also lambasted Hamas for its attacks on Israel and its support for terrorism.

Bush, who is vacationing at his Texas ranch, was not expected to make a public statement on the Israeli operations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for an immediate restoration of the ceasefire, which ended on December 19.

New York  - The United Nations Security Council called an emergency meeting late Saturday to discuss the situation in Gaza.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was to attend the closed-door session, which was expected to begin at 10 pm (0300 GMT), UN spokeswoman Marie Okaba said.

Israel unleashed waves of airstrikes against the Gaza Strip Saturday, targeting Hamas installations and personnel, and killing 225 people, most of them militants. More than 750 people were injured in the strikes.