The eye opening picture was posted to Twitter yesterday (Picture: Alexander Gerst / ISS)

An astronaut has taken what he has called his ‘saddest photo yet’ after he snapped rockets and shells exploding over Gaza and Israel.

My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel pic.twitter.com/jNGWxHilSy — Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) July 23, 2014

German astronaut Alexander Gerst, 38, took the photo from the International Space Station over Gaza and Israel, where explosions from the ongoing conflict in the area can be seen.

The clusters in light signify the densely populated areas of the troubled regions, and each small patch of intensely bright light within them is an explosion.

The German flight engineer, a geophysicist and volcanologist, is spending six months aboard the International Space Station as part of a six man crew.




Although he has been orbiting the Earth for 57 days and regularly tweets incredible images of the planet, he believes this is his saddest photo yet.

The picture has been retweeted more than 16,000 times and received many comments from people concurring with Gerst’s despair at the conflict.

@Astro_Alex If only they could see our Earth from your vantage point! — Edie (@I_We_Gaia) July 23, 2014

@Astro_Alex Alex, That's is the saddest thing ever, only if we could live peacefully but unfortunately that's the reality on our plant earth — Bina ;) (@iambinaxx) July 23, 2014

@Astro_Alex Not the fireworks you want to be seeing ……..x — penny lillie (@flowerfly8) July 23, 2014

The conflict has so far claimed over 600 lives, including an estimated 150 children, in three weeks.

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