TEL AVIV, Israel – Prime Minister Sharon survived a major challenge to his leadership in the party he helped found, narrowly claiming victory yesterday in a vote widely seen as a referendum on his rule and the recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The victory capped a dramatic comeback for Mr. Sharon, who has been vilified by Likud Party hard-liners for his recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and who had been trailing in recent opinion polls. Mr. Sharon’s supporters said the victory meant the prime minister would push forward with his peace efforts.

“The argument over whether or not Sharon’s vision was the Likud’s vision is over with this vote,” a pro-Sharon lawmaker, Roni Bar-On, told Israel Radio.

Yesterday’s vote by the 3,000-member Likud central committee was ostensibly over a procedural issue: whether to hold elections for a party leader in April, as scheduled, or move up the primary to November. But Mr. Sharon and his main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the ballot amounted to a vote of confidence in the prime minister.

Mr. Netanyahu, who accused Mr. Sharon of abandoning the hawkish Likud Party’s nationalist roots by carrying out the withdrawal, pushed for an early primary to capitalize on anger against the prime minister. Mr. Sharon opposed any change.

Likud members voted 1,433 to 1,329 in favor of keeping the schedule intact, according to official results announced just after midnight. Turnout was 91%. As the results became apparent, Mr. Sharon’s supporters at the site of yesterday’s vote popped open champagne bottles and danced in celebration.

Mr. Netanyahu, a former prime minister, conceded defeat yesterday, but said he would continue his campaign to oust Mr. Sharon. He said the close vote showed that the party remains bitterly divided, with many members opposed to Mr. Sharon’s concessions to the Palestinian Arabs.

“I expect to see this camp with all its force when it fights for the path of the Likud in the primaries and I have no doubt in the second phase we will win and the Likud will win,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Another prominent opponent of Mr. Sharon, Uzi Landau, said it was now up to the prime minister to unify the party. “If he wants, it will be unified. If he continues his past practices, it will not.”

Mr. Sharon did not immediately react to the vote. As he cast his ballot earlier yesterday, he warned that the early elections proposal would “badly harm the Likud.”

Sharon confidants said that with a defeat, he likely would have quit Likud and competed in elections as the head of a new centrist party. Such a run by Mr. Sharon, who is popular among the Israeli general public, would strengthen the political center, pushed Likud to the political fringe, and likely improve chances of a Middle East peace deal.

The prime minister is still expected to face a tough challenge from Mr. Netanyahu in the party primary.

Polls in recent days had shown Mr. Netanyahu with as much as a 12-point lead among Likud voters, and a barrage of rockets launched at Israel by Palestinian Arab terrorists was expected to further bolster Mr. Sharon’s opponents.

In response to the rocket attacks, Israel launched a wide-ranging offensive against terrorists across Gaza and the West Bank over the weekend. Mr. Sharon’s critics and Palestinian Arab terrorists have suggested the offensive was aimed at bolstering the prime minister ahead of Monday’s vote.

Early yesterday, Israeli aircraft attacked suspected weapons factories around Gaza City as well as the southern Gaza towns of Rafah and Khan Younis. The air strikes knocked out power to the eastern part of Gaza City and caused damage to several buildings, but no injuries were reported.

The army said its targets included an access road leading to a rocket launching site in northern Gaza, and weapons-manufacturing factories and storage facilities belonging to various terrorist groups.

Later yesterday, aircraft fired missiles at an empty field militants used to launch rockets at Israel, in a strike meant to deter further attacks, the military said.

Israel pressed ahead with its air campaign despite Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar’s call to end the group’s rocket attacks. Mr. Zahar said he wanted to prevent further Israeli attacks.

The Bush administration has backed Mr. Sharon’s military offensive, and a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said yesterday that Hamas launched attacks on Israel after the statement was made.

Even if Hamas stops its rocket attacks, it remained unclear whether smaller terrorist groups would follow suit. Islamic Jihad said it would not observe the truce after an Israeli airstrike Sunday killed one of its top commanders in Gaza.