Over the past week the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack has been used hundreds of thousands of times, often to distribute pictures claiming to show the effects the airstrikes.  Some of the images are of the current situation in Gaza, but a #BBCtrending analysis has found that some date as far back as 2009 and others are from conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Despite the encouraging news that 63 girls and women have reportedly escaped the grips of Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group still holds the more than 200 schoolgirls it kidnapped in April captive.  Meanwhile, in Chibok, the home of the schoolgirls whose April 14 kidnapping by the group sparked off the #bringbackourgirls campaign, things have not improved.

A man claiming to be the self-appointed caliph of the Islamic State jihadist group made what is thought to be his first taped appearance in a video that circulated on social media Saturday.  Previously there were only two known images of the notoriously elusive Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has permitted Twitter unprecedented access to his administration in a drive to put social media at the heart of government, the US Internet company said.  Modi deployed an army of supporters over Twitter and Facebook during his successful election campaign.

Twitter has become an indispensable diplomatic networking and communication tool. According to the new study Twiplomacy, more than half of the world’s foreign ministers and their institutions are active on the social networking site. Here are five lessons from our world leaders on Twitter.

Suha, the mother of Mohammed Abu Khudair, calls him a “good boy,” often showing journalists photos of him on her phone playing in the neighborhood, or helping the family around the house. Her family was stunned when Hebrew media outlets began running stories just hours after his death claiming that he had been killed because of his sexual orientation, or because her family was involved in some sort of nefarious feud.

Unfortunately, there’s a long history of terrorism. Palestinians regarded it as a resistance to what they see as an illegitimate occupation. Of course, Israelis regarded it as terrorism. What I think is new here, which is very troubling, is that people are using the new tools of technology, social media, and you're beginning to see radical fringe elements that are able to organize, galvanize support.