BBC Gaza documentary 'seriously' breached broadcasting code as punishment revealed

"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," Ofcom said.

"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."

BBC Director-General Tim Davie had previously apologised.

He said there had been a "significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a statement during prime-time 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," the watchdog said.

"A date (will) be confirmed."

The documentary was pulled by the BBC from iPlayer in February.

It came after the boy's family links emerged, and later in July, a BBC internal review found it breached editorial guildelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesman said the ruling was in line with Peter Johnston's review.

"The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review," the BBC spokesman said.

"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."

The spokesman said the BBC had apologised for this and that it accepts Ofcom's "decision in full".

It was also accepted that the broadcaster would "comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised".

It comes after the BBC's Head of News was slammed after telling members of staff that the Hamas Government and its military wing were "different".

The boy at the centre of the documentary was the son of Deputy Agriculture Minister Ayman Alyazouri.

Ms Turness told a meeting that there was a difference, although both were run by Hamas.

The UK Government does not made any distinction between the Government and its military wing.

Ms Turness said in a video to staff: "I think it's really important that we are clear that Abdullah's father was a Deputy Agriculture Minister, and therefore was a member of the Hamas-run Government".

"Which is different to being part of the military wing of Hamas," she said.

"Externally it's often simplified that he was in Hamas and I think it's an important point of detail that we need to continually remind people of the difference."

Ms Turness did not make any suggestion that the BBC documentary should not have been pulled.