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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its findings.

"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The regulator's report said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling 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 aligns with regulation 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 penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."