Jabbul stood on a hill on the edge of the Baysan Valley, overlooking Wadi Yubla to the southwest. Wadi al-'Ashsha ran through its lands in the south. A secondary road linked it to the Baysan-Jericho highway, and other roads connected it to surrounding villages. The site was probably known in Roman times as Gebul or, more likely, as Gebula. The Crusaders also referred to it as Gebul, which may have been derived from the Hebrew word for 'boundary.' In 1596, Jabbul was a farm that paid taxes to the government. 
In the late nineteenth century, the village of Jabbul was situated on low ground and was built of stone and mud. The village had a circular plan, its houses radiating out from the village center. The houses were surrounded by farmlands. A network of narrow alleys spread from the center and merged with the roads linking the village to other localities. Jabbul, whose entire population was Muslim, had a small mosque with a domed shrine which stood south of the houses, and a number of shops. The villagers relied mainly 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. They grew grain, vegetables, and fruits on their lands, which were rainfed. In 1944/45 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.
