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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

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

The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Risk to Damage Credibility'

The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."