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The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.

"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."