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The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."