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The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."