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The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Damage Credibility'

The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

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

The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."