The.

Us President, Joe Biden, says he believes a hostage deal between Hamas and Israel is near. Around 240 hostages were taken on October the seventh by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the UK government. The White House says they are closer, they think, than ever before to freeing some of them. In Gaza, a group of 28 premature babies who were trapped by the fighting around the Al-Shifah Hospital in Gaza City have now arrived in Egypt via the Rafeh crossing for medical treatment. Our senior international correspondent, Oleg Geren, reports now from Jerusalem.

Alive Against the odds, premature babies rescued from Al-Shifah Hospital. Parents cluster around before they are transferred from Gaza. This man seems to be identifying his son. Nor Albana has just been reunited. Albana has been arrested with her twin girls.

I didn't know anything about their condition. Today, I saw them for the first time since the day they were born. Thank God I have been reassured that they are fine.

Then they are wrapped up for the journey across the border, faces of the war in Gaza, whose suffering caught the attention of the world. In Egypt, specialists standing by with a waiting incubator. Still desperately vulnerable, but now safe from harm, unlike about a million other children who remain trapped in Gaza. In Israel, families of those held in Gaza are daring to hope there will be a deal to free at least some of them.

This.

Was the moment on October seventh, when the hostage ordeal began. Here, women being dragged away by Hamas, barefoot and in terror.

Gill Dickman's cousin, was.

Among them. This is my cousin, Carmel, 39 years old. She's an occupational therapist. She loves traveling. She loves music. She's a wonderful aunt.

Carmel Gat is being held along with her sister-in-law, Yaden, whose three-year-old keeps asking when she is coming home.

Hamas doesn't give us any signs of life. We don't even know whether Yaden and Carmel, my cousin and her sister-in-law are alive or not.

The same goes for about 40 Israeli children being held hostage, among them babies. The children are expected to be freed if there is a deal, along with some women. Gil knows his loved ones may not get out now.

Some of them are going to come before the others, and I understand that some of them are going to come before Carmel in Jordan. I believe if they're there, they also understand it, and they want the children to come back before them.

For Israelis, a deal may bring dozens of hostages home. For Palestinians, a few days' respite from the Raleigh bombings. Orna Gehran BBC News, Jerusalem.

So how close could we be to hostages being released? Our security correspondent, Frank Gairdner, is with me. The White House is sounding fairly optimistic.

Yeah, they are. I've spoken to a number of people involved indirectly in this potential deal, and they are optimistic. But we've been here before, and this is terrible for the families who have had their hopes raised and then dashed. But I have to say that I think we're probably closer than we've ever been before. We're talking here about an arrangement that would see around 50 to 70 hostages, Israeli hostages, non-combatants. So not the soldiers who were captured, but women, children, civilians, released in an initial batch. And in return, there would be a pause of, say, six hours a day for about four days for three to five days, and there would be fuel allowed into Gaza. And none of this is actually agreed absolutely yet, but what the parties are saying is that the fundamental agreement is in place. What's been holding it up is the logistics and the practicalities of it. What does that mean in practice? Well, the negotiations are taking place in Doha, in Qatar, but it takes time to get those messages back to the military commanders in Gaza, who, of course, are fighting a war and they're underground, so they don't get immediate answers.

And of course, the longer this war goes on, the fewer of those military commanders there are to actually answer it. Then you've got to gather in the hostages who are held in different places. If you cast your mind back to that horrific day on October the seventh, as soon as they got them to Gaza, they scattered them out to different places to getting the back in and getting the Red Cross to come in and take them out. It'll take time.

Frank Geyser, thank you.