A double tap, or 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 in the same place several minutes later, usually in an attempt to maximize the casualties of an attack. A triple tap refers to an additional third strike which follows the second strike. The term is usually associated with instances where emergency responders and medical personnel rushing to the site hit by the first strike are hit by the second strike. A Florida Law Review article defines the practice as strikes separated by five to twenty minutes, stating that the practice likely is a war crime arguing that it 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 (2001âÂÂ2021) 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 the 2014 Gaza War and the Gaza war (2023-present), 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.
On 25 August 2025, an Israel Defense Forces double tap strike hit the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, killing 22 people, including 5 journalists. Among the journalists killed were the following a Reuters cameraman, Hussam al-Masri; Mariam Dagga, a 33-year-old female freelance journalist for Associated Press; Mohammed Salama, an Al Jazeera cameraman; Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance photographer who also was working with Reuters, and Ahmed Abu Aziz, a correspondent for Middle East Eye and Quds News Network.
The attack also claimed the lives of medical staff, a paramedic, and other civilians, with approximately 50 others wounded, including Reuters photographer Hatem Khaled who later died. The attacks targeted the hospital's fourth floor, resulting in casualties and damage. The strikes have drawn international condemnation and have been widely covered regarding the protection of medical facilities and journalists during the Gaza war.
On 28 February 2026, the first day of the USâÂÂIsraeli attacks on Iran that escalated into a war, the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province in southern Iran, was destroyed during the school day. The attack killed 168âÂÂ180 people, of whom most were schoolchildren, according to Iranian media, making it the deadliest airstrike in the ongoing war. According to testimony given to the Middle East Eye by two Red Crescent medics and a victim's parent, the initial strike to the school was followed by a second strike on another building in the compound at an unspecified time later. Striking two separate buildings, even with time between is not a double tap. Iranian officials later claimed there were three separate strikes on the school, without specifying the time between the strikes. Independent analysis concluded the school and adjacent military compound were struck by multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes.