Stephen O’Brien, the UN humanitarian affairs chief, said he was "horrified and sickened" by the air strike, which killed at least 28 people in the rebel-held Idlib province, near the border with Turkey.
"If this obscene attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of a civilian structure, it could amount to a war crime," he said.
It remains unclear who was responsible for the air strike, with unconfirmed reports suggesting it was carried out by Assad or Russian planes.
"The suspicion will fall initially on the Syrian government," said O’Brien. "We will want to make sure that they, or whoever it is, are fully held to account for this absolutely abominable act.
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"Two air strikes obliterated this tented settlement," the BBC’s Lyse Doucet reports. "Women and children who fled here for safety are now buried here beneath their blackened tents."
Journalist Alaa Fatraoui, who visited the camp after the attack, described the strike as "revenge" against the Syrian people. "There are absolutely no armed men there, they’re all civilian refugees, homeless people living on the street," he told The Guardian.
International condemnation was swift, with Washington warning there was "no justification" for the attack while Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond described it as "horrifying".
The bombing occurred hours after Bashar Assad wrote to Vladimir Putin to thank him for his military support and promised to achieve a "final victory" over rebels.
This is despite the extension of a temporary truce around the city of Aleppo. "Many in the opposition believe that with strikes like this there’s proof the government is not serious about the cessation of hostilities," Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports.
The attacks have raised fears about the safety of the thousands of refugees near Turkey. "Ankara has repeatedly called for safe zones in the area to protect the refugees from air strikes," says the Guardian. "But the proposals have been met with a shrug by western powers involved in the conflict."
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