Following retaliatory raids by the Israeli Air Force that struck government and Iranian sites inside Syria on Saturday, Syria’s assistant foreign minister threatened that Israel would face “more surprises” in any future attack against Syria, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday.

Though, according to Israeli assessments the Israeli strikes knocked out between one third and one half of Syria’s air defenses, Ayman Sussan told a press conference, ““God willing they will see more surprises whenever they try to attack Syria.”

“Have full confidence the aggressor will be greatly surprised because it thought this war — this war of attrition Syria has been exposed to for years — had made it incapable of confronting attacks,” he added.

Following the incursion of an Iranian drone into Israeli airspace on Saturday, an Israeli helicopter destroyed the drone and Israel launched air raids into Syria to destroy the truck that launched it. One F-16 returning from the raid was struck by anti-aircraft fire and crashed in northern Israel. Its pilot and navigator ejected over Israeli territory.

Israel then launched a second wave of attacks aimed at government and Iranian military targets in Syria.

In an interview last August the former head of the Israeli Air Force, Major-General Amir Eshel, acknowledged that the number of raids Israel had launched against targets in Syria over the last five years was “nearing triple digits.”

Israel has established a number of “red lines,” that it said it will not permit in Syria. These include allowing the transfer of “game-changing” weaponry to Hezbollah, and the establishment of an Iranian military presence there.

[Photo: ILTV ISRAEL DAILY / YouTube]