The attack took place around 3.45am local time in a residential area of the city, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

It was not attributed to any party but came hours after Israel’s military said it carried out an air strike on a Hezbollah member in southern Lebanon.

“A hostile drone raided a residential apartment… in Sidon, causing two successive explosions that led to a fire and extensive damage,” reported NNA.

Emergency workers rushed to the scene where they recovered “the bodies of three martyrs”, the agency said.

The agency did not identify a target of the strike.

The earlier Israeli-claimed strike hit a car in a village near the border with Israel, injuring one person, NNA said.

Israel also struck Beirut this week, killing a Hezbollah official handling Palestinian affairs in the second such raid since a November ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese resistance group.

The Lebanese health ministry reported four dead in that strike, including a woman.

Lebanese leaders condemned the attack but Israel said it was in response to rocket fire, which Hezbollah denied.

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah spiralled into all-out conflict last September, and the group remains a target of Israeli air strikes despite the Nov 27 ceasefire.

Under the truce, Hezbollah is supposed to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30km from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

Israel is supposed to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border, but has missed two deadlines to do so and continues to hold five positions it deems “strategic”.