Yibna was a Palestinian village of 6,000 inhabitants, located 15 kilometers southwest of Ramla and southeast of Tel Aviv. The village was attacked on 4 June 1948 by armed Israeli forces. Though the Palestinian villagers tried to defend their village, they stood no chance against the well armed and militarily trained Israeli forces. The Israeli attack was part of the ethnic cleansing of the second stage of Operation Barak. The Palestinian defenders reported that not only the Egyptian army failed to support them, in fact it disarmed them and prevented them from organising a counter attack to liberate their occupied village.

By 5th June 1948 all the Palestinian inhabitants were ethnically cleansed and became refugees.

A mosque built in 1386 and three of the hundreds of houses that made up the village survived its subsequent destruction. The Israeli localities of Yavne, Bayt Rabban, Kefar ha-Nagid, Ben Zakkay, Tzofiyya and Bayt Gamli'el now lie upon the lands of the former village.

Until it was ethnically cleansed, Yibna village had 300 wells and fertile land growing vegetables and arable as well as fruit trees, such as citrus. The recollections of all interviewed survivors, were of paradise with abundant food and close community with neighbours helping each other. Some of these interviews are included in the short film Yibna - Lost Paradise. The film will soon be available online.