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The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

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

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."