The United States on Wednesday demanded accountability by Israel after The New York Times reported that the US ally has used Palestinian civilians as human shields in the Gaza war. The newspaper said that at least 11 squads in five cities in Gaza had coerced Palestinian civilians into tasks such as searching for explosives or scouting inside tunnels, protecting Israeli soldiers from harm. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called the report “incredibly disturbing.” “If the facts as presented in that report are true, they’re completely unacceptable,” he said. “There can be no justificati…