JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed the planned demolition of a West Bank hamlet.

The official says Sunday the aim is to give a chance to negotiations and "suggestions that have arrived from various sources, including over the past days." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Israel says the Palestinian Bedouin encampment of corrugated shacks outside an Israeli settlement was illegally built and has offered to resettle residents a few miles away. Critics say the demolition is aimed at displacing Palestinians for settlement expansion.

Israel has come under heavy criticism, with major European countries urging it to avoid the demolition. The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says such a move could constitute a war crime.