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The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

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

Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.

"Confidence 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 failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."