Jab'a dates back to the Canaanites. The village is mentioned in Eusebius' renowned work, Onomasticon, as Gabatha , believed by historical geographer, Samuel Klein, to be Jab'a southeast of Bayt Nattif. Jab'a has been identified by Conder as the biblical site of Gibeah, mentioned in Joshua . Although not conclusive, it is said to be the burial-site of Habakukthe prophet. Elsewhere Eusebius purports that Habakuk was buried near a place called Ενκηλα, seven miles from Bayt Jibrin, and which place is now called Khirbet Qila. Byzantine ceramics have been found here.
In 1596, Jaba appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Quds, with a population of 3 Muslim households. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on wheat, barley, olives, and goats or beehives; a total of 1,110 akçe. In 1863, the French explorerVictor Guérin found Jab'a reduced to a hundred souls, while the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Jeba in 1883 as "a small village standing upon a high, narrow ridge, with a steep valley to the north. The houses are of stone. To the east are caves in the face of the rock."
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al Jaba'a had a population of 122 inhabitants, all Muslims. while at the time of the 1931 census, El Jab'a had a population of 176, still Muslim, living in a total of 36 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population of El Jab'a was 210, all Muslims, who owned 5,593 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. 102 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,880 used for cereals, while 12 dunams were built-up land.
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Jab'a has been under Israeli occupation. After the 1995 accords, 3.5% of village land was classified as Area B land, the remaining 96.5 % as Area C. The Israeli West Bank barrier extends on Al Jab’a lands. It is effectively inside the Gush Etzion bloc, isolating Jab'a' from neighboring Palestinian villages and 90% of its land. On 25 February 2015, in an apparent price tag attack, a mosque in the village was torched. Israeli police were investigating it. The attack coincided with the anniversary of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre that took place in Hebron 21 years ago. The fire was discovered by worshipers who quickly extinguished it. The carpets and walls were damaged but no one was reported to have been injured. Graffiti in Hebrew called for "revenge attacks" against Arabs and Muslims, according to eyewitnesses. The village houses are small and consist of just one spacious room surrounded by a large area of farmland, on which almonds and olives grapes and are cultivated.
