palestinians and one israeli soldier. gilad shall late is free after being held for five years. officials handed him over to the egyptian authorities a couple hours ago. egypt is expected to transfer shalit on to israeli custody. israel set free hundreds of palestinians held in its jails today, tuesday. a total of a thousand are expected to be released as part of this exchange in two groups. an initial group of 477 palestinian prisoners are going free on tuesday in exchange for sergeant major shalit. matthew chance is at the border crossing in gaza. he joins us live with the latest. presumably a sense of anticipation there, matthew. reporter: certainly is, charles. in fact, hundreds of people have gathered here at the checkpoints, all family members of the hundreds of prisoners about to be released into the gaza strip, who have come to welcome people who, frankly, they didn t expect to see again in many cases. some of the people that have been released by israel today in ex