The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation 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 found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
