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The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.

"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Credibility'

The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

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

"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."