The pullback came despite renewed rocket fire on the Israeli town of Sderot on Sunday and initial statements by army commanders that troops would stay for the foreseeable future.
During the past three days, soldiers had taken up positions on rooftops and in schools in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and in nearby farm areas.
Army bulldozers damaged 15 farms, said the mayor of Beit Lahiya, Mohammed Masri. Reporters touring the area Monday saw demolished green houses and uprooted olive and orange trees.
The army said troops cleared the area of trees and shrubs that Palestinians used as cover for firing crude, homemade Qassam rockets across the line with Israel.
Beit Lahiya municipal workers repaired repairing roads and downed power and phone lines after soldiers withdrew Monday.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on other incidents of destruction of property.
A computer lab on the campus of a branch of Al Quds Open University was trashed, with broken computers. Student and teacher files were scattered.
Tanks also destroyed the courtyard walls of three schools. Soldiers searched an Islamic court and destroyed a training center for Palestinian security officers.
Monir Ahmad, 49, and his family could finally leave their apartment building, where Ahmad sadi Israeli soldiers kept 60 people confined to two small rooms as they used the rest of the building as a lookout point.
At a nearby farm, Amina Abu Daher, 73, stood in her orange grove where soldiers had uprooted 200 trees she had planted together with her husband three decades ago. She picked up some of the fruit, putting them in a fold of her dress.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) "is the bulldozer who wants to uproot any hope of a good future for the two nations," she said.
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