The History of the Haganah states that when the Palmach's Negev Brigade destroyed the village of Burayr, 'the peasants from the adjacent villages of Huleiqat and Kawkaba began to flee in the direction of the Hebron hills.' This occurred on 13 May 1948, during Operation Barak . The Palmach established a position in the village. But Egyptian writer Muhammad Abd al-Mun'im states that Hulayqat was recaptured by Egyptian forces on 8 July, just before the first truce of the war expired. Egyptian armored vehicles took the village in a surprise attack from the north and held onto it until the second truce. Abd al-Mun'im states that the operation was in response to encroachment by Zionist forces in the area. 
Some villagers apparently remained throughout the second truce, when heavy fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces led to another exodus. Hulayqat was reoccupied on 19–20 October, the History of the War of Independence relates, in a two-pronged attack from Bayt Tima in the northwest and Kawkaba in the north. The battle between the Giv'ati Brigade and Egyptian forces involved combat at close quarters in some places. Israeli historian Benny Morris insists: 'There had been no expulsions; the locals had simply fled in face of the approaching hostilities.' On 20 October, the New York Times correspondent wrote that Hulayqat, 'the most southerly point held by the Egyptians in the desert proper, fell last night after the heaviest battle of the campaign….' The village was defended by 600 Egyptian regulars; around 100 of them were killed and a similar number taken prisoner, according to the Times. Egyptian writer Abd al-Mun'im adds that with the occupation of Hulayqat, 'the enemy was able to open a road to his southern settlements and became a dangerous threat to our forces.'
