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The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.

"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."