Jerusalem ? A suicide bomber blew herself up at a bus stop in Jerusalem’s crowded outdoor market Friday, killing six people and wounding at least 50. The attack came while Secretary of State Colin Powell was trying to arrange an end to Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Powell, who met earlier with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to urge a withdrawal of Israeli troops from West Bank towns, viewed the scene of the attack from a helicopter, Israeli officials said.

The asphalt at Mahane Yehuda market which was packed with shoppers before the start of the Sabbath when the blast went off was strewn with glass shards, twisted metal, blood and body parts. Five bodies were covered with white sheets by rescue workers.

Israel launched its West Bank offensive last month after a string of suicide blasts. The army said Friday it would bury the bodies of scores of Palestinian gunmen killed in the Jenin refugee camp during the assault. The decision prompted fresh Palestinian allegations Israel had killed hundreds of civilians and was trying to hide the bodies something Israeli officials adamantly deny.

Israel Radio identified Friday’s suicide bomber as Nidal Daraghmeh, a woman from the Jenin refugee camp. Initial news reports said the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police Chief Mickey Levy said the bomber tried to get into the market, then blew herself up near the bus stop shortly after 4 p.m., killing six people and wounding at least 50. A photographer saw the severed head of a woman on the pavement. It was unclear if the count of six included the bomber.

A witness, who gave only his first name, Shimon, said he was standing at the bus stop when the blast went off. “The body of the terrorist fell on me and we were pushed into the Hava bakery,” Shimon told Israel Radio. “I couldn’t move around because there were pieces of flesh and bodies around me.”

Mahane Yehuda has been the scene of frequent suicide bombings in the past.

Earlier Friday, Powell began his meetings aimed at bringing a cease-fire after 18 months of violence. The United States also was pressing Israel to immediately end the West Bank campaign, which aims to crush Palestinian militias.

But Powell emerged from his talks with Sharon without a timetable for a withdrawal. Powell said he understands Israel’s need to defend itself but said “eventually the parties must talk.”

Sharon said that “Israel is conducting a war against the Palestinian infrastructure of terror and hopes to end it as soon as possible.”

Powell was expected to meet Saturday with Arafat at the Ramallah headquarters where the Palestinian leader has been confined with aides to three rooms by Israeli forces who invaded the compound two weeks ago. In Gaza City, an effigy of Powell was burned in an anti-U.S. protest by thousands of Palestinians.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, escorted in an Israeli military convoy, became the first Arab official to visit Arafat.

Meanwhile, Israel’s plan to bury Palestinian gunmen from Jenin camp, the site of the fiercest fighting in the offensive, angered Palestinians.

Israeli army officials have estimated 100 Palestinians were killed in the camp during the eight days of battle. Palestinians claim the toll is much higher and said the burials aimed to hide the number of dead.

Israeli army spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey said collection and burial of the bodies in the camp would begin Friday. They would be buried at a special cemetery in the Jordan Valley where Lebanese fighters killed in cross-border clashes have been buried in unmarked graves, he said.

“The terrorists we found with guns we are going to bury in what we call the enemy cemetery site,” Kitrey told The Associated Press. “The civilians we will try to give back to the Palestinians.”

Kitrey denied Israel was trying to cover up any events in the camp and alleged Palestinian Red Crescent officials have rejected an Israeli offer to retrieve bodies inside.

Dr. Hussam Sharkawi of the Red Crescent said that for several days the Israeli army has blocked his group from entering the camp. “This is part of their disinformation campaign to hide something,” Sharkawi said.

The Red Cross also said it and other aid groups, including the Red Crescent, had been denied permission by Israel to enter the camp.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the Israelis were trying to cover up the killing of civilians. “They want to hide their crimes, the bodies of the little children and women,” Erekat told The Associated Press.

Erekat said that Powell should visit the Jenin camp and witness the “war crimes.”

Jenin effectively has been closed to journalists during most of the fighting, so allegations of massacres and mass burials could not be independently confirmed. Journalists who entered the camp briefly Thursday saw no bodies, and the army would not explain where they were.

The devastation from a week of heavy battles was evident in the camp, a poverty-stricken, dusty collection of cement-block buildings that is home to 14,000 people. Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers crashed through narrow alleys, shaving the fronts off buildings and revealing beds, tables and clothes inside.

“I saw many people die in the streets and when their homes fell down on them,” Rami Rateh, a 22-year-old camp resident, said Friday.

The Jenin battle quickly is becoming a symbol of Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation. In Gaza, hundreds demonstrated in sympathy of the gunmen who died in Jenin, and doctors in Gaza City said three newborns have been named “Jenin” in the past three day.

On the Israeli side, 23 soldiers were killed in Jenin, 13 in an elaborate ambush involving explosives and gunfire, by far the costliest military encounter for Israel in 18 months of conflict. The Israeli military said Thursday that 4,185 Palestinians had been detained during the operation.

In related events:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Geneva that an international force must be sent quickly to the Palestinian territories. Israel has rejected calls for any international force, a longtime Palestinian demand, but says it would accept American monitors.

Although Israeli forces have been pulling out of some villages, they briefly moved into a new one: Kufr Kalil near the northern city of Nablus, where troops made arrests before leaving, the military said in a statement. Also, the statement said, “activities in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Dura and Dahariyah, south of Hebron, continue.”

A woman was killed in her Dahariyah home, apparently by a stray bullet, according to Palestinian security officials. They also claimed Israeli forces had set free about 40 Palestinians jailed on accusations of collaborating with Israel. The army said everyone at the complex housing the jail was detained and investigated, and those deemed innocent were released.

Israeli officials hinted at flexibility in ending the Bethelehem standoff at the Church of the Nativity between Israeli forces and about 200 armed Palestinians. “There are all kinds of proposals, who would receive them, how they would leave,” said Sharon’s spokesman Raanan Gissin. “But they must be put on trial in Israel.”

In Gaza, an armed Palestinian opened fire and threw a grenade at the Erez crossing point into Israel. An Israeli border police officer and a Palestinian worker died, and the gunman was shot dead, the army said. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility.