Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied a journalist's claim that his wife once threw him out of a car in a convoy during a row.

Axar.az reports that Igal Sarna wrote on Facebook two years ago that Sara Netanyahu had stopped the prime minister's fleet on a highway one night and ejected her husband.

But at the start of a libel case on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu told a court that the journalist's post was a "lie".

Mr Sarna has insisted it was "entirely true" and based on "reliable sources".

The Netanyahus are seeking 280,000 shekels ($76,400; £69,200) in damages.

The couple accuse Mr Sarna of committing an injustice against them in a manner that was "disgusting, cynical, low, mean and inordinate" and intended to "shame... revile them and embarrass them publicly", according to Haaretz newspaper.

The journalist, who works for Yediot Aharonot newspaper, wrote that the prime minister's convoy had stopped on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. He said that "a not-so-young man" was "ejected in the dark, with shouts" because "one woman doesn't want him to remain with her in the car".