Title says it all, say you are in your house and a zombie got in and is above your bed, with you cat on it. trying to hit the zombie on the bed with the cat on the bed can have the sweeping effect hit and kill the cat even if you only targeted the zombie, I would suggest not hitting neutral mobs as well in the fix (dont sweep piglins if they arent already hostile to you, same with iron golems, maybe villagers, wolves, possibly players if you hit a mob, ect)