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The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Possibility to Erode Trust'

The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."