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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.

"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Trust'

The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."