RAMALLAH, West Bank – Ariel Sharon’s death Saturday elicited a wide range of responses from Palestinians, but sadness wasn’t one: Some cheered and distributed sweets while others prayed for divine punishment for the former Israeli leader or recalled his central role in some of the bloodiest episodes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A Palestinian distributes sweets after hearing about the death of Ariel Sharon in Gaza, Jan 11, 2013. – Photo: AP

The Palestinian Authority did not issue an official statement, and reports in Palestinian media outlets emphasized that he was responsible for the killing of thousands of Palestinians from 1948 till his last breath.

Palestinians widely loathed Sharon as the mastermind of crushing military offensives against them in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza and as the architect of Israel’s biggest settlement campaign on lands they want for a state.

The intensity of those feelings appears to have faded a bit because Sharon left the public stage eight years ago, when he suffered a debilitating stroke and slipped into a coma. Sharon died Saturday afternoon at a Tel Aviv hospital.

Palestinians celebrate Sharon’s death in Ein el-Hilweh camp near the city of Sidon, Lebanon – Photo: AP

The news traveled quickly in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut, where Israeli-allied forces systematically slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians in September 1982, three months after Sharon engineered the invasion of Israel’s northern neighbor.

Sharon was later fired as defense minister over the massacre, with Israeli investigators rejecting his contention at the time that he didn’t know the attack was coming.

“Sharon is dead!” a 63-year-old Palestinian woman in Sabra said, pointing to a text message from her daughter. “May God torture him,” said the woman who only gave her first name, Samia. “We should celebrate. We should be firing in the air.”

In the Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis, a few dozen supporters of two militant groups, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, gathered in the main street, chanting: “Sharon, go to hell.” Some burned Sharon pictures or stepped on them, while others distributed sweets to motorists and passers-by.

View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.568051