Soldiers departed overnight from the town the Israeli military said was a launch-pad for rocket attacks against Israel, repositioning elsewhere in the northern Gaza Strip and leaving behind scenes of destruction.
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.
The Israeli 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, the military said.
In Gaza for talks with the Hamas-led cabinet on forming a unity government, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned Israel's attacks.
"If Israel wants peace and security, the path of Palestinian blood is not the one to be followed," Mr Abbas told news agency 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," he said.
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 Tuesday in a string of incidents in which Israeli troops opened fire.
Two of the militants were from Islamic Jihad, which claimed an attack Monday 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.
One Israeli soldier has died during the operation.
Gaza militants carried out their deepest rocket attack into Israel in months 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.
Israeli officials have repeatedly vowed that they have no intention of permanently reoccupying Gaza, from which it withdrew troops and settlers last year after a 38-year occupation.