PARIS — Palestinian leaders delivered files documenting what they say are Israeli war crimes on Thursday at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, broadening a new front in the Middle East conflict.

The files include descriptions of military operations throughout the occupied territories and in particular last year’s war in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian spokesmen said. One set of papers covers killings of civilians and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, while another deals with what Palestinians consider to be Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which could meet the definition of war crimes.

The long-expected move carried far greater symbolic value than it did legal weight. The Palestinian papers are not considered criminal evidence, but they will be treated as part of the fact gathering by the court’s chief prosecutor, who is continuing an examination she began in January to decide if there is a strong enough case to open a criminal investigation.

For the Palestinians, though, it was another step on a long and bloodied road to advance their push for statehood and a crucial part of their drive to hold Israel accountable, before an international court, for its decades-long military occupation of lands the Palestinians claim for a state of their own.