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The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Trust'

The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."