Israel did not leave Gaza, though it made a show of doing so.

> Gaza elected Hamas who have been bombing Israel ever since.

Israel carried out a campaign directly aimed at discrediting Fatah and radicalizing the Palestinian population around the elections, and it paid off exactly as intended, with Hamas not only winning locally in Gaza, but an overall legislative majority.

Israel has also acted to preserve the status quo they acheived in that election by obstructing subsequent planned all-Palestine elections.