The image that you see is of the Middle East and on Twitter Gerst explains that the photo shows rocket fire and explosions over Gaza and Israel. 
The image itself shows a sideways view of Israel. North is to the right of the photo and south to the left. The dark part of the image is the Mediterranean Sea and the brightest part is Tel Aviv, only 44 miles north of Gaza City.
This is what Gerst said in his blog, “On the day that I took this photo, I floated into the Cupola window module because I suddenly noticed something that I had never seen before. There were streaks of light going forth and back over a dark Earth, occasionally lit up by orange fireballs. I took my camera and took a few photos before I finally realized what I just saw, and where we just flew past. Even though the photo itself does not contain any explosions, I could see them occur several times.”
As the conflict has gotten very combative between Palestinian and Israel militants, it’s sad to think that you can literally see us blowing ourselves up from space. The death toll in Gaza has already reached 687 people this week, most of them being civilians and children. I’m sure being so far up and away from everything these astronauts can get a clear view of the bigger picture. Were all living on the same planet together. Why kill one another? Were but just little pieces of a bigger whole and divided we won’t ever stand upright.
