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The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Possibility to Damage Trust'

The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."