A car exploded outside police headquarters in the city of Gaza, killing one Palestinian [REUTERS]

A car has exploded outside a police headquarters in Gaza City killing one Palestinian and wounding another, Hamas officials and medics say.

Nadim Baba, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, quoted local sources on Wednesday as saying that "the man who was killed was 27-year-old Muhammad Jamal Nimnim.

"He was a member of Jaish al-Islam [Islam Army], a hardline group which was linked to the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston in 2007."

Medical officials said a second Palestinian was wounded in the blast.

Targeted attack

Hamas authorities said that the explosion was caused by an Israeli air strike which targeted a silver Daewoo car, outside the main police compound in the city.

Ihab al-Ghussein, from the Hamas-run interior ministry, said: "Investigations show that the explosion was caused by missile fire from an Israeli drone".

The Israeli military later confirmed that it was a targeted attack on "a senior leader belonging to the terror organisation - Army of Islam".

They said Nimnim was involved in directing several terror attacks against Israeli targets in recent years, more recently against American and Israeli targets in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.