Trendy Tel Aviv contends with rockets for first time

• Nightlife not as raucous due to rocket threat
• Many stay outdoors, hoping the West will calm the situation
• First warning sirens since the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq

TEL AVIV, Israel — On this early Saturday evening, the streets were unusually quiet for a warm, breezy night in Tel Aviv, a city known for its raucous nightlife.

Shaked Shalom, 27, an Israeli who is originally from a small settlement near the Gaza border was among the few sitting in a cafe and drinking coffee with friends.

"My life hasn't really changed, as I'm used to this reality," he said.

He said he hoped Tel Aviv residents were tough enough to handle what could be a barrage of missile attacks.

"It worries me that people are scared already only after three missile attacks," he said. "They say that Tel Aviv has lived in a bubble and now that the bubble has burst."

A cosmopolitan city on the shores of the Mediterranean, Tel Aviv is full of restaurants, exclusive seaside apartments, gorgeous beachfront and fashionable stores and had never seen a rocket attack from Gaza.

Until this week.

For the first time since the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, a siren blared Wednesday in Tel Aviv warning of a possible incoming rocket that may have been an improved, longer-range missile.

People ran for cover while others seemed bemused by the wail. An explosion was heard by some on the outskirts of the city.

The villages and towns in southern Israel have been hit for years with rockets fired by terrorists in nearby Gaza, and the people there are on a constant war-footing, constructing safe rooms and watching for text alerts that give a 15-second warning of an incoming rocket.

But Tel Aviv has mostly experienced rocket attacks via television broadcast..

Alfred Bracha, 55, owner of a supermarket on Florentine Street in south Tel Aviv, a haven for artists and the young and hip, said business since the missile attacks has been better because more people did not want to go far, given the threat of rockets. Instead they are shopping close to home at his corner store.

"The streets are more empty since the first alarm, the cafes are empty. But I think the situation can only get better," he said.

Bracha and others feel that the West would not let hostilities grow into a full-fledged war. He believed the United States would prevent Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-backed government from making the conflict worse .

"Hamas is weakening, and I believe that Egypt has no money to go to war, especially as America financially supports Egypt and I believe they will not let them attack us," he said.

Still, he said that he couldn't bring himself to go out and party in typical Tel Aviv fashion knowing that his countrymen were in the field fighting.

"I feel solidarity with our military," he said.

Yam Umi, a 30-year-old artist, was walking her dog in the street and said she was irritated with the aggression of both sides.

"I'm more afraid of indifference of the people. The war has become an integral part of our life," she said.

"People think that Tel Aviv is a bubble, that everything here is fun and easy, but I feel an integral part of Israel," she said. "If rockets fall in the south, there is nothing strange about them falling here too."

Mahmoud Salim, 43, an Arab construction worker from the Palestinian territories who lives and works in Tel Aviv, worried that the situation would worsen.

"I feel fear, feel like there is no safe place," he said, his voice quivering. "Life has changed since the attacks on Israel, the streets are empty.

"Usually, in this weather, street life is bustling, but these days they are empty," he said. "The atmosphere is grim. It does not matter that I'm coming from the territories, I'm against the aggression of all kinds."