Double tap strike

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. 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).

The double-tap strikes became the subject of debate during the US war in Afghanistan. Double-tap strikes have been used by Saudi Arabia during its military intervention in Yemen, by the United States in Pakistan and Yemen, by Israel in Gaza in 2014 and also during Gaza war in 2024, by Russia and the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war, and by Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially in the full-scale invasion in 2022.