A narrow majority of Israelis support Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip next week despite the 11th-hour resignation of his top government rival, a newspaper poll found yesterday. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quit in protest on Sunday, saying Sharon?s vision of ?disengaging? from fighting with the Palestinians would harm Israel?s security. Political analysts saw the move as an early challenge to the premiership.

The walkout by Netanyahu, a former prime minister popular in the ruling Likud Party, was too late to prevent cabinet approval for the removal of Jewish settlers due to start after August 15.A survey by the biggest daily Yedioth Ahronoth said Israeli support for the plan to quit Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war, had dipped slightly after Netanyahu?s resignation, which rattled local markets. The newspaper found that 55 percent of Israelis back the pullout, down from 58 percent in an undated previous poll.

The number of those opposed to the plan rose from 35 percent to 39 percent. Six percent of 500 respondents were undecided, according to the poll, which had a 4.5 percent margin of error. Right-wing opponents, including many in Sharon?s Likud, see the withdrawal as a capitulation to a 4 1/2-year-old Palestinian revolt, as well as setting a precedent for further possible handovers in the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. The hawkish Netanyahu had long opposed removing all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank despite consistent support for the plan among most Israelis. Netanyahu, 55, is widely expected to challenge Sharon?s leadership at some stage after the pullout and could benefit from the support of opponents of the Gaza pullout. Sharon is 77.

But a separate survey suggested that Sharon?s standing in Likud remains strong. The prime minister appointed a party loyalist, Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, as Netanyahu?s replacement. Of Likud voters polled by Maariv daily, 51 percent called Sharon their preferred candidate for prime minister in elections expected next year. Thirty-four percent backed Netanyahu, according to the poll, which had a 4.4 percent margin of error. Palestinians welcome the Gaza withdrawal but suspect it is a ruse to cement Israel?s hold on West Bank settlement blocs. Less than 4 percent of 240,000 settlers will be affected by the plan.