The city is the home town of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a famous Islamic figure who fought against the French Colonization in Syria, and then moved to Palestine where he led a revolution against the British authorities and the well-armed Jewish gangs. Al-Qassam has become an icon of the Palestinian liberation movements, especially the Islamic movent of Hamas that named its military wing after him - Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
In antiquity Jableh was an important Roman city, one of the main remains of this period is an amphitheatre, capable of housing c. 7,000 spectators. Near the seashores even older remains were found dating to the Iron Age or Phoenician Era. Less than 1 kilometer of the city centre lies the ancient site of Gibala, today known as Tell Tweini. This city was inhabited from the third millennium BCE until the Persian period
