A message on Katif.net, the unofficial website for former Katif residents, encourages the visitors and provides this tip: "We, too, had many people come to visit us in our homes to embrace us, take interest in our welfare, and 'strengthen and be strengthened.' Our experience enables us to tell when it helps and when it doesn't really help. Before we enter a home in Sderot, let us stop for a second, remember our own experiences, and formulate within ourselves the best approach for the specific family that we are about to visit - for that family is our exclusive objective at that moment. Sometimes they need just three minutes of 'we love you,' sometimes they would like a listening ear for frustrations and fears, and sometimes there is a desire to connect to those who are connected to, and derive strength from, our eternal roots... With G-d's help, we will emerge from these meetings stronger and more confident in our ability to once again act not only for ourselves, but on behalf of broader circles as well."
Gush Katif's Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzky, who continues to serve as a spiritual and practical leader for the former residents, explained why it is important to visit the Sderot residents: "Regardless of the government's policies, it is important to talk with the people and hearten them, just like any person who is in need of encouragement so that he may live as normally as possible. Given the similar situation that we have experienced, we are more equipped than anyone else to give them strength and hope."
"People are thirsty for words of faith and strength," Rabbi Kaminetzky writes. "The reality in which we live, where our leaders and media broadcast only weakness, is very difficult and depressing. People are thirsty for words of the spirit that will uplift them."
Thoughts of leaving Sderot should not be encouraged, the rabbi advises: "The struggle is not just for Sderot, but rather for the nation's spirit. Continued life in Sderot, despite the difficulties, can imbue a great spirit into the people. Unfortunately, our nation faces great difficulties from within and without, and we need great spiritual strengths to help us meet these dangers... The people of Sderot, unwittingly, are the spearhead of the fight..."
Asked if one is permitted from a Halakhic [Jewish-legal] standpoint to live in an area of danger, Rabbi Kaminetzky responded:
"A certain measure of danger is clearly permitted; one may ride in a car or cross the street, despite the danger of traffic accidents. But beyond this, those who live today in Sderot - just like when we lived in Gush Katif in Gaza - these are not merely personal issues. The eyes of the whole world and nation are upon Sderot. If, Heaven forbid, it is abandoned, this will give another tremendous back-wind to terrorism, encouraging them to try to empty out more towns in Israel, Heaven forbid - a tragic situation that would be a tremendous and terrible desecration of the name of Israel and of G-d...
"The home-front has become the battle front, both in the north and now here in the south - and as such, it is part of the 'commanded war' the Torah instructs us to wage. If the home-front crumbles, the army won't have what to defend even if it finally receives the right commands."
Asked if such a message can also be brought to the "non-believing" public, the rabbi expressed confidence that it can: "Every Jew has a spark of faith, without which it is doubtful if he would remain in the country, enlist in the army and be willing to give his life for the nation. Moreover, at a time of crisis, more Jews thirst for something more spiritual and genuine that can give meaning to life and its tribulations."
"I therefore believe," the rabbi concluded, "that the words of Torah and faith on which we were raised and educated, and which gave the entire Gush Katif public the strength to survive such difficult situations, are also those which will empower the people of Sderot - and, eventually, the entire nation - to remain and continue the struggle and, in the end, emerge victorious."