Samakh was the largest village in the Tiberias district, both in terms of area and population, and was a major transportation link.

[15] In 1875, Victor Guérin found the village to be divided into two parts, and built of adobe bricks or volcanic stones.

[20] In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Samakh, together with Al-Hamma, had a total population of 976.

[24] In 1929–1935, the airfield in Samakh was used for Imperial Airways passenger services as a stop en route to Baghdad and further to Karachi.

[25] Difficult weather conditions in the area led to destruction of a Hannibal aircraft, and to relocation of the passenger services to Gaza.

Their chief crops were bananas and grain; in 1944/45 8,523 dunums were planted in cereals,[11][27] while 239 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

[28] The village was captured by the Haganah in the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, along with the British border guard base nearby, and became a military outpost.

[29] Walid Khalidi wrote in 1992, that the structure remaining of Samakh was the ruins of the railway station and a water reservoir.

The kibbutzim Masada and Sha'ar HaGolan were established southeast of the village site in 1937, and have since expanded onto lands within Samakh's former jurisdiction.