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. In the 1945 statistics the population of Kaukaba was 680 Muslims, while the total land area was 8,542 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, a total of 166 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 8,166 for cereals, 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." References Bibliography External links Kawkaba Palestine Remembered Kawkaba, Zochrot Survey of Western Palestine, Map 20: IAA, Wikimedia commons Kawkaba from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center District of Gaza Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War