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The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".

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

Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 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 adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."