The feminine form hostia turns the enemy into a sacrificial victim

Evidence

Often feminized-the war of the sexes would have to be rewritten, perhaps, from the perspective of a history of the enemy (as if it were possible)-the enemy is not a man, but a woman, and may be called hostia, in which case, the victim is “the victim which serves to appease,” compenser, “the anger of the gods,” an offering, in other words. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 415