The Syrian regime is disguising Iran-allied militias as its own fighters, according to rebels, a battlefield feint that appears calculated to try to avoid further Israeli air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria.

Israel, which has said it won’t allow forces loyal to Iran to entrench near its border, has watched closely as the regime and its allies appear to be preparing a military assault on rebels in southwestern Syria.

After initially appearing to withdraw, military convoys of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and other Iran-backed militias have returned to both Daraa and Quneitra provinces in Syria’s southwest near Israel, dressed in Syrian military uniforms and under Syrian flags, according to multiple rebel commanders.

The convoys that returned were equipped with rockets and missiles, one of the rebel commanders said.

“It’s a camouflage,” said Ahmad Azam, a commander with the rebel Salvation Army, a rebel group based in Quneitra. “They are leaving…in their Hezbollah uniform and they are returning in regime vehicles and dressed in regular [Syrian] army uniforms.”