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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Potential to Undermine Confidence'

The authority's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.

"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 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 directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."