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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Undermine Confidence'

The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."