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The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Erode Trust'

The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."