Jabbul stood on a hill on the edge of the Baysan Valley, overlooking Wadi Yubla to the southwest. Wadi al-Ashsha ran through its land in the south. A secondary road linked it to the Baysan - Jericho highway, and other roads connected it to the surrounding villages.[6]
History
The site was probably known in Roman times as Gebul or, more likely, as Gebula.[6] Roman and Byzantine ceramic remains have been found here.[7] The Crusaders also referred to it as Gebul, which may have been derived from the Hebrew word for "boundary".[6]
Ottoman era
In 1596, Jabbul was a farm that paid taxes to the government.[8]
The village had a circular plan, with houses radiating out from the village center. The houses were surrounded by farmlands. The entire population was Muslim, and the village had a small mosque with a domed shrine which stood at the south of the houses. The village also had a number of shops, however, it mostly relied on Baysan and the village of Kawkab al-Hawa for education, medical care, trade and other services. A spring to the east of the village supplied them with water.
In the 1945 statistics, the village had 250 Muslim inhabitants,[2] and a total of 4,367 dunums was allocated to cereals, 5 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The elevated lands around the village were used for grazing,[6][12] while 33 were built-up (urban) land.[13]
1948, and after
On 7 June 1948, a platoon of Barak troops, commanded by Yitzhak Shusterman raided the village along with others in the area. The troops arrived by bus and took up position on a high point on the outskirts of the village and lobbed a few two-inch mortar rounds into its centre and then moved in and searched it. The troops encountered harvesters who ran off and "[...] opened fire but hit no [one]". Arabs also fled from the village itself and the platoon "burned their crops and set alight several houses".[14]
In September 1948, Nahum Hurwitz of Kfar Gil'adi appealed in a letter for permission to destroy Jabbul, Kawkab al-Hawa, al-Bira and al-Hamidiyya in the area for fear that they may be used by Arabs for military operations and to enable them to "take the village's lands, because the Arabs won't be able to return there".[15]
Walid Khalidi described the remaining structures of the village in 1992:
"The houses have been reduced to rubble and are overgrown with trees, thorns, and wild grass. The land around the site is cultivated."[6]
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 84
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 134
^Morris, 2004, p. 261. Quotes from #807: 'Barak' Intelligence Officer to Golani Intelligence Officer (June 8, 1948), Report on Search/Patrol in the Villages: Danna, al Bira, Kafra, Jabbul, Yubla Murassas, IDFA 128/51//32 {{citation}}: External link in |publisher= (help); #807 on Morris, 2004, p. 308
^Morris, 2004, p. 357. Peterzil to Erem, Bentov, Hazan and Cisling (August 10, 1948), quoting an extract from an undated letter from Faivel Cohen of Ma'ayan Barukh, to Peterzil, HHA-ACP 10.95.10(5){{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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