AMNA NAWAZ: Earlier this week, we brought you stories from the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians spoke of the struggles of daily life amid the recent wave of violence.

Now the perspective of Israelis in this dangerous new moment in Israel.

Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen begins at a protest against new government measures.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: "Democracy or Bibi," they cry, railing against the prime minister who now leads the most right-wing government in Israel's history.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest on Tuesday after a bill which would allow the government to pass any law it likes, unimpeded by Supreme Court oversight, passed its first parliamentary vote.

Once it has free rein to pass laws, the new government in the agreement that brought it to power says it plans to extend Israeli settlements.

Netanyahu and his ministers frequently speak of increasing security measures in Palestinian areas.

As divisions grow over the potential impact of these policies, army veteran Ronen Olshever fears for his family's future.

RONEN OLSHEVER, Veteran, Israeli Defense Forces: I am very worried about the violence.

I am very worried about my kids.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Ronen is not the only parent terrified of the violence that has engulfed the Israel and the Palestinian territories anew.

Since the start of the year, the Israel Defense Forces say there have been more than 320 attempted terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank alone, while the security forces have conducted more than 1,800 raids on Palestinian towns and villages in response.

Eli is an Israeli it is an Israeli settlement town home in the West Bank that is home to more than 1,000 families.

Eliana Passentin moved here with her husband 28 years ago after leaving San Francisco to make aliyah, or claim Israeli nationality.

ELIANA PASSENTIN, Eli Resident: We are here because of our love of our land and because Israel is expanding, and this is a place that Israelis can live.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: There are strict restrictions on how much and where Israelis can build here, because the U.N. says the building of settlements like these in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law.

But Israeli living here argue they conquered this area of land, which they call by its biblical title, Judea and Samaria, in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Building settlements is so contentious because the idea of a two-state solution centers around West Bank land becoming a state for Palestinian citizens.

As more and more Israeli towns become established here, that option is disappearing fast.

ELIANA PASSENTIN: That's where the story of Hanukkah... LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: For Eliana, that possibility is already long gone.

Her family has been here for decades in the home where she raised all eight of her children.

ELIANA PASSENTIN: Unfortunately, I think the Israeli government is looking too much to the world.

The Donald Trump administration recognized this is a legal area, part of Israel.

On one hand, it was, wow, exciting.

On the other hand, it's like OK, I know.

We know.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Three weeks ago, residents of Eli were eating at this popular diner when two Palestinian men driving an Israeli car burst in shooting assault rifles.

Four people were killed.

ELIANA PASSENTIN: I sit down, my legs are like jelly, my hands are sweating.

My son Eton (ph) works at the Hummus.

I call him.

He doesn't answer.

It was the longest minute-and-a-half of my life.

He was OK.

But then I realized someone else lost their son.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Eliana says she and her neighbors just want to live in peace alongside Palestinians and get on with their lives.

But there are others here who don't believe that's possible.

AVIYAD GIZBAR, Hummus Store Owner (through translator): Things like this are happening every day.

That's our reality.

But, in the end, we don't have any other option.

This place belongs to us.

We will win no matter what.

Fear is not in our vocabulary anymore.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Like many settlers, the store's owner, Aviyad Gizbar, says he carries a gun at all times to protect himself and his community.

He's furious this has happened to his neighbors and employees.

It's made him feel more firmly than ever that there can be no compromise.

AVIYAD GIZBAR (through translator): This government will find a solution once and for all.

They need to carry out military operations in a way that makes them fear us.

Every citizen in Israel must be armed with a pistol.

We're living in a war.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Caught right in the middle of that war are Arab citizens of Israel, including Palestinians who got Israeli citizenship after Israel was created in 1948.

They make up nearly 20 percent of Israel's population.

Issa Jaber is the former mayor of Abu Ghosh, an Arab village in Israel in a mixed area of Jews, Muslims and Christians that's often held up as a blueprint for living in peace.

But when a terror attack strikes, Jaber and his community are quickly reminded that they and their neighbors have not achieved integration, merely coexistence at arm's length.

ISSA JABER, Former Mayor of Abu Ghosh, Israel: Such attacks produce what's called collective sanctions against us, like the people who do not attend our restaurants and our shops because -- some of them because of the fear.

And the others, they want to punish us, as if we are a partner of what happened.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Now, in rhetoric, if not yet in practice, the new government and some of its supporters are calling the hard-won status and rights of Arab Israelis into question, branding them as an enemy within.

Jaber fears this incitement could shatter the fragile peace he's dedicated his life to creating here.

ISSA JABER: Instead of letting us promote coexistence and harmony, they are dividing the society.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Bracha Lederman and her family avoid politics altogether, living a quiet, devout life of religious study in their ultraorthodox Hasidic community of Elad.

But the fresh wave of politicized violence tearing through the country burst into their lives.

one morning in February.

BRACHA LEDERMAN, Mother of Terror Attack Victim (through translator): His mother-in-law called me and told me he's lying on the ground, unconscious, bleeding and not responding.

By the time we arrived at the hospital, he was dead.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Bracha's 20-year-old son, Shlomo, was waiting at a bus stop in Jerusalem, on the way to bring his new wife to Shabbat dinner with his family.

Suddenly, a Palestinian driver rammed his car into the waiting crowd.

Two little boys, just 6 and 8 years old, were also killed in the attack.

BRACHA LEDERMAN (through translator): Shlomo was a very special kind of person.

He was really the soul of our family.

My son didn't harm anyone.

He was just standing at a bus stop waiting for a bus.

Why should he be killed?

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: That's the one thing most Israelis can still agree on, that Jews came to live here in safety and freedom, rights long denied to their forefathers.

But many young people, like 23-year-old college student Dor Nadler, believe their own government is now trying to take that freedom from them.

She fears this path will only lead to more blood.

DOR NADLER, College Student: The situation in Israel is kind of getting dire, in terms that we cannot really see peace in the future.

We're not talking to the other side.

We are seeing a lot of security threats, huge rising populism.

And the government is capitalizing on it and getting young people to get riled -- riling them up with anger and trying to kind of show them that violence is the only answer to getting peace.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: As the new government forges ahead and outrage grows among Israelis who oppose them, the cracks in this nation, once forged by the common goals of its citizens, are deepening by the day.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Tel Aviv, Israel.