The site was known during the
Crusades as Coquebel. Kawkaba contained an archaeological site with a pool, cisterns, the foundations of buildings,
columns, severed
capitals. North of it was Khirbat Kamas, which was identified as the Crusader Camsa and which yielded some archaeological artifacts. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the area of Kawkaba experienced a significant process of settlement decline due to
nomadic pressures on local communities. The residents of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, but the land continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages. In 1838,
Edward Robinson noted
Kaukaba as a Muslim village, located in the Gaza district. In 1863
Victor Guérin found that the village has a population of five hundred inhabitants. In the interior of a
oualy dedicated to
Sheikh Mohammed he observed mutilated fluted white marble column, next to a
Corinthian capital. At the
well, he noted two barrels, also ancient columns, one with white marble, the second gray granite, which were, he thought, exhumed in that area and did not come from elsewhere. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed
Kokabe with a population of 72, in 20 houses, though the population count included men, only. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described it as a small
adobe village, with a well to the west and a pool to the north. The village had a rectangular layout along the above-mentioned road, and expanded north–south alongside it. increasing in the
1931 census to 522, still all Muslims, in 121 houses. Kawkaba shared an elementary school with the villages of
Bayt Tima and
Hulayqat. Its houses were made of
adobe and cement, and its shops were located at the village center, on the western side of the road. On its eastern site were two water sources: a spring and a 70-meter deep well. The villagers engaged in
rainfed agriculture, cultivating grain and winter and summer vegetables. Towards the end of the British Mandate period they also cultivated fruits, such as figs and grapes, on all their land expect to the west. while 40 dunams were built-up areas.
1948 and after The village that was captured by Israel during
Operation Yoav during the
1948 Arab-Israeli War. The fall of the village was preceded by the events at nearby
Burayr; where the
Haganah Oded Brigade apparently executed a large number of military age Palestinians. The Kawkaba villages had offered to surrender to the Yishuv's forces but the
Haganah drove out the last of the inhabitants on the 27/28 May 1948. The village was on the front line between the Israeli and Egyptian armies through the summer of 1948 and appears to have changed hands several times. Following the war the area was incorporated into the
State of Israel and in 1950 the
moshav of
Kokhav Michael was founded on village land, southeast of the village site. According to Khalidi, by 1992 the remaining structures on the village land were: "The site is overgrown with sycamore and Christ's -thorn trees. The old road, as well as crumbled walls and debris in a wooded part of the site are clearly visible. The land in the vicinity is cultivated by Israeli farmers." ==People from Kawkaba==