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The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.

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

"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."