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The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

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

The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Trust'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.

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

"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."