Sabbarin was captured by Israeli forces on May 12, 1948 during the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine in Operation Coastal Clearing. It was defended by a local militia and possibly the Arab Liberation Army. According to Benny Morris, the Irgun (IZL) encountered resistance there and the majority of the villagers fled after 20 of them were killed in a firefight, with an IZL armoured car firing on the villagers as they fled. More than one hundred people who had not fled, including the elderly, women, and children, were held behind barbed wire for a few days before being expelled to nearby Umm al-Fahm. Others who had fled earlier ended up in refugee camps in the Jenin area.