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The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.

"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."