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The BBC engaged in a "major 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 ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."