Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel at the time, condemned the attack as a "brutal crime against civilians and children."[24] In Damascus, Ramadan Shallah, the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said killing of Israeli women and children was permissible "because they decided spontaneously to go live in a war zone".[25] The attack was strongly condemned by Amnesty International as a deliberate attack against civilians and therefore a crime against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[3] The commissioner general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) condemned the killings of Tali Hatuel and her children but accused the Israel authorities of carrying out reprisal demolitions of Palestinian homes in some areas as a form of collective punishment forbidden by international law.[4]