His return, expected to be about 8pm (AEDT), will mark the first phase of one of the largest prisoner swaps in history with 1027 Palestinian prisoners set to be released in return.
In a complicated series of exchanges, Sgt. Shalit, 25, is set to leave captivity in Gaza and be driven by Hamas to the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt.
Hamas captured Sgt. Shalit in a cross-border raid in 2006.
There he is expected to be met by officials from Egypt and the International Red Cross. He will be given a medical check by the Red Cross. He has been denied any Red Cross access during five years of captivity.
Egyptian officials are likely to give him a telephone which he can use to call his parents, Noam and Aviva, who he has not spoken to since he was 19 and who will be waiting for him in Israel.
Once he has been handed to Red Cross and Egyptian officials, Israel will transfer the 27 female prisoners who are on the prisoner release list to Hamas officials in Gaza, Fatah officials in the West Bank and Jordanian authorities in Amman.
Egyptian military vehicles are then due to drive Sgt. Shalit to the border with Israel. Once he is handed to Israeli army officers Israel will release the 450 Palestinian male prisoners to Hamas (for Gaza) and Fatah (for West Bank.) The second part of the deal the remaining 550 prisoners will be transferred in coming weeks.
Because Israeli officials do not know his condition or whether he has put on or lost weight, the army is understood to have several different-sized uniforms so he can return home in an army uniform.
From the border he will be flown by helicopter to Israel's Tel Nof military base where he will be met by his family and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Finally, he will be flown by helicopter to the family home in Mitzpe Hila, northern Israel.
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