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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Trust'

The regulator's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.

"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

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