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The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."