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The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.

'Risk to Erode Credibility'

The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.

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

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."