Double tap strike

For other uses, see Double tap (disambiguation).

A double tap is the practice of following a strike (be it bombardment such as missile strike, air strike, artillery shelling, or detonation of explosive weapon or improvised explosive device) with a deliberately timed second strike several minutes later, hitting emergency responders and medical personnel rushing to the site, usually in an attempt to maximize the causalities of an attack.^[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, and those no longer able to continue fighting.^[5]

The double-tap strikes became the subject of debate during the US war in Afghanistan.^[6][why?] 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, 2024 and 2025,^[12][13][14] by Russia and the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war,^[15][16] and by Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially since the full-scale invasion in 2022.^[17]