Two Israeli Air Force jets were scrambled to escort Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane last month when he returned from a visit to the United States, after his wife Sara demanded as much, reportedly fearing an attempt to shoot down the plane in retaliation for the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah the day before.

According to the Walla news site, the Air Force’s decision to assign two F-35 fighter jets to accompany the official Wing of Zion plane on the final leg of its journey from New York, where Netanyahu had addressed the UN General Assembly, was a compromise after the Prime Minister’s Office originally requested an escort for the entire length of the flight.

While the escort was purportedly granted due to fear of retaliation from the Hezbollah terror group following the September 27 assassination of its leader in Beirut, Walla cited unnamed sources who alleged that the PMO’s request for an escort had been submitted days before the plane even departed Israel.

The initial request was denied by the Air Force, the sources alleged, and the matter was not brought up again until after Nasrallah was killed, at which point the PMO claimed that there was a real threat of Iran or Hezbollah targeting the Wing of Zion.

The second request for an escort, this time only from as far as Cyprus, was approved, the sources said.

The flight occurred before Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea was targeted in a Hezbollah drone attack earlier this month. Netanyahu characterized the incident as an attempt to assassinate himself and his wife.

The Wing of Zion is already equipped with an anti-missile protection system and is flown by Air Force pilots, some in reserves and some in active duty.

The flight itself was also plagued with controversial requests, Walla reported, after the Prime Minister’s Office sought to publish a photo of the escort and was refused by the IAF, which suspected that it would be used as a publicity stunt.

To avoid this possibility, the sources said that pilots were instructed to fly behind the Wing of Zion, rather than alongside it.

The Prime Minister’s Office denied on Wednesday evening that the escort had been provided due to a demand from Sara Netanyahu, and dismissed the report as “fake news and another baseless and unrestrained attack on the prime minister’s wife.”

“The decisions concerning the prime minister’s security are made only by government security officials and as part of ongoing situational assessments conducted by professionals,” it added.

The IDF did not confirm nor deny the report, and said only that “security for the prime minister’s plane is determined according to security assessments and regulations.”