President Joe Biden is temporarily protecting some Lebanese nationals from deportation and authorizing work permits amid deteriorating humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon "due to tensions between Hezbollah and Israel," the White House said in a statement Friday.

"I have determined that it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to defer for 18 months the removal of any Lebanese national" with exceptions, Biden said.

Lebanese nationals who return to Lebanon after the announcement, have not continually resided in the U.S., or have been convicted of a felony or of two misdemeanors are some of the people excluded from the memorandum.

-ABC News' Armando Garcia

Vice President Kamala Harris said she had a "frank and constructive" meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and told him "it is time" to get the hostage deal across the finish line.

"There has been hopeful movement and the talks to secure an agreement on this deal. And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done," Harris told reporters following her meeting.

Harris also spoke directly to individuals calling for a cease-fire in her remarks, telling them, "I see you and I hear you. Let's get the deal done so we can get a cease-fire to end the war. Let's bring the hostages home, and let's provide much needed-relief to the Palestinian people."

In the meeting, she said she also raised with Netanyahu her "serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians."

"What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating," she said. "The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent."

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

The families of American hostages being held by Hamas said they had a "productive and honest" discussion with President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday afternoon.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, told reporters they came away "more optimistic" about the possibility of negotiators reaching a cease-fire and hostage release deal and said they "got absolute commitment from the Biden administration and from Prime Minister Netanyahu that they understand the urgency of this moment."

The families also brushed off concerns that Biden not seeking a second term could hurt the chances of a deal coming together.

"I actually think it allows the president to be laser focused on the things that are true priorities to him, and saving human beings, cherished human beings, 115 of them, eight of whom are U.S. citizens, is one paramount issue for him," Rachel Goldberg, the mother of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez and Molly Nagle

The body of Ravid Katz, a hostage killed on Oct. 7 and taken to Gaza, has been recovered, Kibbutz Nir Oz announced in a press release.

Katz, 51, was a father of three, including a baby girl, an educator and a "loving man who believed in peace," the release from his kibbutz said.