Throughout the abandoned Israeli settlements of Gaza , Monday was a carnival of celebration , political grandstanding and widespread scavenging for a Palestinian population whose occupiers vanished overnight , as the Israeli Army pulled its last soldier out of Gaza at 6:50 a.m . But hours before the divisional commander , Aviv Kochavi , became the last Israeli soldier to leave , thousands of Palestinians had entered the once-forbidden settlements that , together with their military infrastructure , consumed about 30 percent of the densely populated Gaza Strip .