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The BBC committed a “serious breach” of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, UK media regulator Ofcom has ruled.

An Ofcom investigation into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was “materially misleading”.

The BBC’s director general has previously apologised, saying there had been “a significant failing in relation to accuracy”.

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

“As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed,” it said.

The watchdog’s statement said: “Our investigation found that the programme’s failure to disclose that the narrator’s father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.

“It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.

“Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

“This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war.”

The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy’s family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation’s editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston’s review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code.

“We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom’s decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised.”