Double tap strike

For other uses, see Double tap (disambiguation).

A double tap (named after the shooting technique where two shots are fired in rapid succession at the same target) is the practice of following a strike (be it bombardment such missile, air strikes, artillery shelling, or detonation of explosive weapon or improvised explosive device) with a second strike several minutes later, hitting emergency responders and medical personnel rushing to the site.^[1][2][3][4] A Florida Law Review article argued that the practice likely is a war crime since it grossly violates the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which prohibit targeting civilians, the wounded, or those no longer able to continue fighting (hors de combat).^[5]

The double-tap strikes became the subject of debate during the US war in Afghanistan.^[6] Double-tap strikes have been used by Saudi Arabia during its military intervention in Yemen,^[7][8] by the United States in Pakistan and Yemen,^[9][10][11] by Israel in Gaza in 2014 and also during Gaza war in 2024,^[12][13] by Russia and the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war,^[14][15] and by Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially in the full-scale invasion in 2022.^[16]