On 12 September 2005, at around 7 a.m., the last group of Israeli soldiers left the Gaza Strip, thereby ending 38 years of continued Israeli military presence in the area. In a short ceremony at one of the exit gates, IDF Brigadier-General Aviv Kochavi, the departing Gaza Region Commander, stated: ‘the responsibility for whatever takes place inside befalls upon the [Palestinian] Authority.’ On that same night, the IDF Chief of Southern Command, Major-General Dan Harel, promulgated an official decree proclaiming the end of military rule in the Gaza Strip and formally nullifying the decree issued on 6 June 1967, which instituted military rule in the region. So came to end Israel's prolonged occupation of Gaza – or did it?
