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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Erode Credibility'

The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."