Archaeological evidence, including columns and masonry inscribed in Latin, shows that a first-century BCE Judeo-Roman settlement existed at the site.

The Arab village of Jebata and its name were identified with the ancient town of Gabatha, which is mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome as lying within the borders of Diocaesarea near the great plain of Legio or Esdraelon.

[2][3] By the modern era,[dubious – discuss] a village by the name of Jebata (also spelt Jabata, Jebatha, Jibbata and Jibta) had been established 25 kilometres southeast of Haifa on a mound in the Galilee, not far from the villages of Yafa an-Naseriyye, al-Mujaydil and Ma'alul, and which Palmer of the Palestine Exploration Fund had wrongly identified with Jotapata.

[4][5] In the Ottoman era, a map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Gebat, but the position was misplaced, as that area was not surveyed directly by the French.

[6] In 1875, Victor Guérin gave the population as 350, noting "[i]t is situated upon a low hillock, once occupied by a small tower, of which nothing remains but confused debris.

[8] Laurence Oliphant wrote of a visit he made to Jebata which was published in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund in January 1885.

[10] Gottlieb Schumacher, as part of surveying for the construction of the Jezreel Valley railway, noted in 1900 that Jebata had grown considerably; "The proprietor, Sursock, built a number of dwellings covered with tile roofs, cleaned the well on the eastern slope and lined it with masonry.

[20][22] On 6 October 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, Soviet-made surface-to-surface FROG-7 missiles launched by Syria struck Gvat, presumably aimed at a nearby airfield.

In 2008 the kibbutz agreed to sell its 75.1% stake at Plastro Irrigation Systems Ltd to John Deere[27] at a company value of NIS 265 million.