The Holy Land From On High

Megan Garber captions:

The orbiting space station—itself a symbol of international cooperation and, in that, global unity—passed over Israel and Palestine as it orbited Earth’s surface yesterday. It was nighttime on that side of the planet, as one human habitat passed over another; everything was dark save for the man-made lights studding the land. And save for one other thing, too: explosions. The flashes of bright light—brighter than the other ones—that are distantly visible evidence of human bloodshed. “From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel,” [Astronaut Alexander] Gerst tweeted. He then shared the image above. He noted, as he did so, that it was his “saddest photo yet.”