US President Barack Obama has said that Ariel Sharon was a ‘leader who dedicated his life’ to Israel.

“On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the family of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to the people of Israel,” Obama said in a statement issued on Saturday.

Sharon, known to many Palestinians as ‘The Butcher,’ died on Saturday at the age of 85.

He died at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, where he had been in a coma since 2006, when he was hit by a stroke.

Sharon led the Israeli regime into a war with Lebanon in 1982 and was responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside Beirut, after his forces allowed allied Lebanese militias into the camps.

Palestinians have celebrated the death of the former Israeli prime minister.

In the Gaza Strip, people distributed sweets to passersby and motorists while some others trod photos of Sharon.

Jibril Rajoub, a top Palestinian official of the Fatah movement, described Sharon as a criminal and expressed regret that he had never appeared before the International Criminal Court for his crimes against humanity.

Salah el-Bardaweel, a spokesman for the Hamas resistance movement said in a statement, “We pray to Allah that Sharon and all the Zionist leaders who committed massacres against our people to go to hell.”

Human Rights Watch has stated that it is a shame that Sharon died without facing justice for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre.