Yehiam was founded by a group of the socialist Zionist Hashomer Hatzair youth movement - Holocaust survivors from Hungary and members from Palestine - who named themselves Kibbutz HaSela (lit.
On 20 January 1948, 200-300 troops of the Arab Liberation Army's Second Yarmuk Regiment based in Tarshiha attacked Yehi'am, armed with mortars, machine guns and rifles.