Double tap strike

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 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.^[1][2][3][4] 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.^[5]

The use of double-tap strikes by coalition forces during the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) 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.^[6] Double-tap strikes have been used by Saudi Arabia during its military intervention in Yemen,^[7][8] by the United States in Pakistan, Yemen, and the Gulf of Mexico,^{[9][10][11][12]} by Israel in Gaza in 2014, 2024 and 2025,^[13][14][15] by Russia and the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war,^[16][17] and by Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian War, especially since the full-scale invasion in 2022.^[18]

On 28 February 2026, the first day of the US–Israeli attacks on Iran that escalated into a war, the Shajareh Tayyebeh^[a] girls' elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province in southern Iran, was destroyed during the school day.^[20] The attack killed 168–180 people, of whom most were schoolchildren, according to Iranian media,^{[21][22][23][24]} making it the deadliest airstrike in the ongoing war.^[25][26][27] 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 an unspecified time later.^[28] Iranian officials later claimed there were three separate strikes on the school, without specifying the time between the strikes.^[20] Independent analysis concluded the school and adjacent military compound were struck by multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes.^[29]

• Grieco, J.; Ikenberry, G.J.; Mastanduno, M. (2022). Introduction to International Relations: Perspectives, Connections and Enduring Questions. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-93374-3. Retrieved 23 June 2024.