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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."