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The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Possibility to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

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

The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

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