Israeli troops left Beit Hanun on Tuesday as eight people were killed else where in Gaza, raising to more than 60 the Palestinian death toll in the beleaguered territory in a week.
Soldiers departed overnight from a town the military charged had become a launchpad for rocket attacks against Israel, repositioning else where in the northern Gaza Strip and leaving behind scenes of destruction.
"We withdrew our forces from Beit Hanun after having completed our mission," a military spokesman confirmed after daybreak.
Roads were left gouged out. Homes, two mosques and a school were destroyed. The historic old town was pockmarked with bullet holes and shell craters, electricity pylons ripped from the ground and sewage spewing in the streets.
Residents picking their way through the wreckage mourned their "martyrs", eyes red with fatigue, filled with hate and tears, an AFP reporter said.
The army said troops had seized a large amount of weaponry, including rocket launchers, anti-tank missile launchers and grenades. Dozens of Palestinians "suspected of terror involvement" were also taken for questioning, it said.
In Gaza for crunch talks with the Hamas-led cabinet on forming a unity government, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned Israel's attacks, charging that Palestinian casualties were no guarantee of its security.
"If Israel wants peace and security, the path of Palestinian blood is not the one to be followed," Abbas told AFP.
"The Israelis announced that they had left Beit Hanun and we thought they had finished, but unfortunately they've begun again," he added.
"This proves Israel is determined to continue its aggression not only in Beit Hanun but in the entire Gaza Strip."
Visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere slammed Israel's offensive as illegal, unacceptable and disproportionate.
"We find this reaction highly disproportionate, and unacceptable, and the humanitarian suffering and the breaking down of infrastructure is unacceptable and is a breach of international humanitarian law," he told journalists. Five militants and a woman were among the eight Palestinians killed on Tuesday in a string of incidents in which Israeli troops opened fire.
Two of the militants were from Islamic Jihad, which claimed a on Monday attack in which a Palestinian woman blew herself up alongside Israeli troops, one from the military wing of Hamas and two from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
A woman, Nahla Shanti, and Abdel Majid Ghirbawi were killed when a shell struck the home of Hamas lawmaker Jamileh al-Shanti where the two were staying.
The army said it returned fire after militants fired two rocket-propelled grenades at its forces in the area.
An Israeli military spokesman said forces "identified hitting 10 gunmen" after six incidents in which gunmen approached the army or troops came under attack in northern Gaza as well as one air strike on a militant cell.
The six-day reoccupation of Beit Hanun failed to halt rocket fire, with some 40 rockets hitting Israel since the start of Operation Autumn Clouds.
Gaza militants carried out their deepest rocket attack into Israel in months on Tuesday, when four projectiles struck the town of Ashkelon, causing no damage, after the army rumbled out of Beit Hanun. Another rocket fell further south.
The latest Israeli incursion, following four months of military activity in Gaza in which more than 300 Palestinians have been killed since a soldier was captured in late June, was condemned by the international community.
Israeli officials have repeatedly vowed that they have no intention of permanently reoccupying Gaza, from which in the Jewish state withdrew troops and settlers last year after a 38-year occupation.
In all, 64 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a week, including more than 50 and one Israeli soldier who died during Autumn Clouds.
Despite the bloodshed, Abbas was due to hold another round of crunch talks with Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya on a unity cabinet, saying an agreement could be reached "within days".
"We are working very hard in order to form this government," Abbas told journalists. "I hope that we will reach a conclusion within days, maybe in less than days.
Talks between the rival leaders scheduled for on Tuesday could however be delayed until on Wednesday, he said.
Abbas has tried in vain for months to persuade the Hamas to agree to a moderate platform acceptable to the international community in order to lift a crushing economic and political boycott of the Palestinian territories.