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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Trust'

The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."