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The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Erode Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared.

"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."