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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.

"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 BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.

'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'

The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.

"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.

A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."