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The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

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

Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.

"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."