THE U.S.-sponsored economic workshop “Peace for Prosperity,” that is currently held in Manama, Bahrain, for two days, was “born dead,” a senior Palestinian official said Tuesday.

“Manama workshop was born dead and there is no alternative for the Arab Peace Initiative and the implementation of the international resolutions to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a press statement.

A status of outrage and a general strike dominated the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in protest against the economic workshop in Bahrain.

At least 12 Palestinians were injured Tuesday afternoon during clashes with Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip in protest against holding the workshop.

Dozens of Palestinians reached the area in northern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, waving Palestinian flags, chanted slogans against Israel and the United States and threw stones at the soldiers stationed on the border.

Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers fired teargas canisters and live gunfire at the demonstrators.

The Palestinian political factions stressed that “resolution to the conflict with Israel can never be economic only, but political.”

Public and private institutions, including banks, were closed, in response to the call of the Palestinian factions. Large banners were hung across the Gaza Strip against the workshop and the U.S. plan that is being prepared to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, better known as the “Deal of the Century.”

The workshop is attended by 39 countries, including the host country Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Morocco.

Palestinians factions and the Palestinian Authority have expressed regret over the participation of the Arab countries in the workshop and have called for a boycott of it.

The U.S. has decided not to involve senior Israeli officials and only opened it to Israeli businessmen.

“The Arab Peace Initiative, approved by Arab and Islamic summits and became part of the United Nations Security Council resolution 1515, is a red line, and American officials can’t reform the initiative on behalf of all these summits,” said Abu Rudeineh. (Xinhua)