Israel has killed 20 people, including journalists and health workers, in a strike on Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
In fact, it was two strikes that hit the hospital in Khan Younis on Monday 10 minutes apart about 10am (07:00 GMT).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement released in English only that Israel deeply regretted what he characterised as a “tragic mishap” without explaining how Israel had hit the same hospital not once but twice in apparent error.
So what is a double-tap strike? Is it legal? Here’s what we know:
What happened at Nasser Hospital?
The first strike hit the top storey of the hospital where Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri was operating the news agency’s live feed.
The second strike was filmed live as it killed rescue workers and journalists who had run to the scene to help after the initial strike.
Israel told foreign doctors volunteering at Nasser Hospital to leave the facility before the attack for “some arbitrary reason” and instructed them not to return until the next day, Dr Mimi Syed, who has done two volunteer missions to Gaza, told CNN, calling Netanyahu’s statement of a “tragic mishap” “absolutely untrue”.
https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1960073822985437419
What is a double-tap strike?
Essentially, it’s two strikes on the same target.
The first strike is intended to kill an individual or individuals, the second to kill any rescue workers who come to help.
The United States is thought to have been among the first to use double-taps extensively, carrying out double-tap drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan during the administration of former President Barack Obama.
The tactic was adopted by other armies, such as those of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Russian army in Ukraine.
How much does Israel use it?
Israel now “routinely” uses the tactic in its war on Gaza, according to a joint investigation in July by Israeli magazines +972 and Local Call.
One source present in the military command rooms overseeing the strikes said planners know that the tactic amounts to a death sentence for the sometimes hundreds of people injured in the initial strike and their rescuers.
“If there’s a strike on a senior commander, another one will be carried out afterwards to ensure rescue efforts don’t take place,” the source explained.
“First responders, rescue teams – they kill them. They strike again, on top of them.”
Is it legal?
Not at all.
Double strikes are breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the targeting of medics, anyone assisting in rescue efforts or those wounded in the first strike.
In fact, Monday’s strikes targeted a hospital full of medical staff, rescuers and journalists.
All of the above are protected under international law, yet Israel has consistently been accused of targeting them in its war on Gaza.
There are no accurate numbers for the total number of healthcare and Civil Defence workers Israel has killed during its war on Gaza. However, Monday’s killings bring the number of journalists killed by Israel in Gaza to at least 273, according to an Al Jazeera tally, making it the deadliest single conflict for reporters in history.
Israel has also consistently been accused of deliberately targeting journalists in its attacks on Gaza.
Are these ‘warning taps’?
No, you’re thinking of “roof-knocking”.
Roof-knocking refers to dropping light ordnance onto the roof of a target shortly before a primary strike to “warn” inhabitants that a larger strike is imminent and ostensibly give them time to evacuate.
When the roof knock is on a residential building, whole extended families would find themselves with minutes to flee their homes.
What Israel calls roof-knocking dates to its previous wars on Gaza, such as 2008, 2012 and 2014, and is often conflated with any kind of warnings issued to people living in a location Israel wants to attack – sometimes giving them as little as five minutes to get out.
Rights groups, including Amnesty International, said Israel manipulates what could be claimed as a humanitarian measure by using heavier ordnance during the initial strike, in effect turning it into a double tap.
Condemning the practice during Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza, Amnesty said: “There is no way that firing a missile at a civilian home can constitute an effective ‘warning’.”
Two days after it started its current war on Gaza, Israel said it would no longer extend this warning to Palestinians. Instead, it said, text messaging and what were found to often be out-of-date maps would be used to guide civilians out of harm’s way.
What did Israel say?
In addition to saying that hitting the same hospital wing twice was a “tragic mishap”, Netanyahu claimed Israel “values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians”, adding: “The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation.”
https://x.com/netanyahu/status/1960030187933835604
The Israeli army issued a statement claiming it regretted “any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such”.
Surely Israel plans to investigate?
An analysis in August by Action on Armed Violence concluded that 88 percent of the investigations the Israeli military said it was launching into its own conduct were either stalled or closed without action.
According to its own leaked report, Israel has known throughout its war in Gaza that 83 percent of the people it was killing were civilians, amounting to about 52,000 people in 22 months of the war.
It has also been accused of systematically destroying Gaza’s healthcare system as well as routinely detaining and torturing its healthcare staff.
