A US court has ruled that a student who was detained at an immigration centre for speaking out against Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza must have her student status restored.

In an interim ruling on Monday, US District Judge Denise Casper said the federal government must restore Rumeysa Ozturk’s student visa record, months after the Tufts University student was released from detention.

The judge ordered that US President Donald Trump’s administration must reinstate Ms Ozturk’s name on a database of foreign students, known as Sevis, administered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

The restoration of her Sevis record would allow Ms Ozturk, a doctoral student in childhood development and the media at Tufts in Boston, Massachusetts, to work and do research related to her studies.

In a statement, Ms Ozturk, who is originally from Turkey, said her student record had been “unlawfully cancelled” because she had co-written an opinion piece advocating “equal dignity and humanity for all.”

She said: “After eight long months, that record will now finally be restored.

“Going through this brutality, which began with my unlawful arrest and 45 days of detention at a shameful for-profit Ice prison in Louisiana, I feel more connected to everyone whose educational rights are being denied, especially in Gaza.”