Double tap strike
A double tap is the practice of following a strike 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 casualties of an attack. 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.
The use of double-tap strikes by coalition forces during the War in Afghanistan sparked debate due to the possibility of non-combatants, including medical personnel, being among those responding to the first strike and therefore being hit by the second strike. Double-tap strikes have been used by Saudi Arabia during its military intervention in Yemen, by the United States in Pakistan, Yemen, and the Gulf of Mexico, by Israel in Gaza in 2014, 2024 and 2025, by Russia and the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war, and by Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially since the full-scale invasion in 2022.